How the Modern Economy and Regulation Grew up Toge

Authors: John Steele Gordon

Publish Date: 2012/03/28

Volume: 49, Issue: 3, Pages: 256-262

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Abstract

In the middle third of the 18th century the factory system and mechanization began to transform the economy of the Midlands of England Accelerated by James Watt’s rotary steam engine introduced in 1784 the new economy began to spread outwards first to other areas of England and Scotland then to northwest Europe then to the new United States Economic growth which had seldom exceeded 1 annually in the old economy now often reached 4 in the newVast new fortunes based not on land but on manufacturing began to pile up and be reinvested in still more enterprises In 1826 a young British novelist named Benjamin Disraeli introduced the word millionaire into English to describe the possessors of these middleclass fortunes With their new economic power they began demanding more political and social power Britain and the United States accommodated these demands peacefully many other nations did not The Victorians thought of their time as “an age of chaos a heaving tumbling age”1In 1848 as revolution swept Europe the new economic system acquired a name the Industrial Revolution But as that system gathered strength and enterprises of once unimaginable size and power began to evolve new rules were needed to defend both the new system from selfdestructing and society as a whole from the development of an economic plutocracy As James Gordon Bennett the founding father of modern journalism explained in 1868 “Men no longer attempt to rule by the sword but they find in money a weapon as sharp and more effective and having lost none of the old lust for power they seek to establish over their fellows the despotism of dollars”2In that sense it is not unlike the development of the game of American football in the latter half of the 19th century In earlier times each college had had its own version of football Some were rugby like and others more like soccer In many colleges and eastern prep schools games were played that were little more than two mobs of students each riotously trying to get the ball over the goal line of the other by any means necessary Injuries and even deaths were not uncommon in these melees and many colleges banned such games in the 1860’sBut as colleges with different football rules started to play each other the game of American football with its own set of rules began to evolve a unique blend of rugby and soccer The development of manufactured balls that were far more uniform than the old handmade ones thanks to the Industrial Revolution allowed more precise rules to be appliedAs the game’s evolution progressed coaches would often come up with new ideas Some of these were terrible such as the flying wedge of the early 1880’s where the line would link arms and form a wedge protecting the ball carrier as he advanced towards the other team’s goal line It turned out that there was no defense against the flying wedge and injuries caused by it were far too common The tactic was banned after only 2 yearsOther ideas were brilliant such as the forward pass that first appeared in the early 1900’s Once the rules for that tactic were formalized no passing beyond the line of scrimmage for instance and certain players being ineligible to receive it transformed the game into the one we are familiar with today The rules of the game continue to evolve however if at a far slower pace The twopoint conversion was first adopted in college football in 1958 and came to the NFL only in 1994

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