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Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 9 days ago)
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Hmm. That's kind of a zen question.
I'd say yes. If you have to do the labor that was required to live on the western frontier of the US, and grow your own food and build your own house and milk your own cow and gather your own eggs and haul your own water and dig your own well . . .
I'd say the reward for all that labor and know-how got you less return than it does in our current monetary system where you are paid for your labor, and then you buy your food and shelter.
well land was real cheap....it was more of an agrarian society so people made their own food and stuff.I imagine there was lots of bartering going around.I dont know how expensive tools and stuff like that were but a lot of those were self-made.There was not modern medicine so you did not have that expense.Things could cause financial ruin fast like premature death and bad crops or whatever.I dont know how cheap guns and stuff like that were.It was many hours of hard and dangerous work for little reward other than having your needs taken care of.I imagine taxes were a lot less.
I would imagine any manufactured goods had to come from the northeast, and due to the transportation, or lack thereof, they'd be very expensive. Tools, guns, clothing, anything that needed to be transported, especially before trains went transcontinental.
Everything from "The East" was expensive and highly valued in the western settlements... at least according to "Little House on the Prairie" and other accounts. Lol. Everything from cotton cloth, to finished furniture, to medicine to guns were all quite expensive. It took quite a while for the railroads to make it out to the west coast of North America. Until then, people in the "Wild West" had to survive by living off the land.
Aren't there stories about how the folks that sold the picks and shovels to the gold rushers are the ones that made the most money?
If you needed a shovel, the shovel would likely become more valuable than the gold dust wrapped in your handkerchief.
And if there was only one guy selling shovels, you were at his mercy.
Everything from "The East" was expensive and highly valued in the western settlements... at least according to "Little House on the Prairie" and other accounts. Lol. Everything from cotton cloth, to finished furniture, to medicine to guns were all quite expensive. It took quite a while for the railroads to make it out to the west coast of North America. Until then, people in the "Wild West" had to survive by living off the land.
Sorry but I immediately thought of this when I saw "The East."
Land was cheap and goods/services were expensive. That's why people were more self sufficient. They couldn't afford to pay others for goods or services. Houses were made of sod or wood from their land for a reason.
I would imagine any manufactured goods had to come from the northeast, and due to the transportation, or lack thereof, they'd be very expensive. Tools, guns, clothing, anything that needed to be transported, especially before trains went transcontinental.
I've also wondered how everyone, even cowboys, seemed to be able to afford coffee back then.
It varied with the time and conditions. Early on, many manufactured goods were dumped in Kansas/Missouri as the settlers realized that fancy armoire, or grandfather clock, or famed mirror was not going to feed them, give them water, protect them from Indians or wild animals or get their wagon out of the mud and those were the only things that really mattered. Manufactured goods that keep you alive - were very valuable. Luxury goods were excess wight in the wagon and therefore trash.
To this day, Kansas/Missouri (particularly Kansas City) is an antique furniture mecca which seemed odd until I learned the early settlers tended to realize what was truly needed and what they were facing going forward about the time they got to Kansas City and dumped everything else.
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