In this volume in the NBER series on capital formation and financing, the authors show, with supporting figures, two major trends in mining and manufacturing. The first is that this sector had a rate of growth significantly higher than that of the economy as a whole. The total capital assets of this sector increased fifteenfold from 1880 to 1948, while the total stock of all tangible wealth in the United States increased only about sixfold. The second trend is a marked diversity among industries in the rate of growth over the period and in the time pattern of that rate. The authors advance a number of explanatory hypotheses about the significance of their findings.

Originally published in 1960.

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