Why did Agriculture not share in the ‘boom’ of the 1920’s ?
Not all people and businesses shared in the prosperity of the 1920’s. The worst of the effected was the agricultural industry. There are many reasons as to why agriculture did not share in the boom of the such as falling demand, World War 1, overproduction and increased competition. All of these link together to explain the reasons why agriculture did not share in the boom.
At the end of World War 1, America had exported a great deal of it’s resources such as wheat, to Europe. Now that the war had ended, Europe was left poor and could not afford much of this trade anymore as the prices were too high. They had become America’s main market so this loss of market meant that the businesses selling their resources to Europe lost profit. The Republican leaders had also introduced import tariffs to supposedly protect the American industries but in the case of agriculture they didn’t. The tariffs meant that prices became even higher for America’s main market and seeing as it was Europe, they destroyed the chance of further agricultural exports to other countries. In response to the import tariffs that America had placed on their goods, other countries such as Britain and France who had previously been America’s main market, applied their own tariffs which meant that America’s exports fell aswell which also meant that the agricultural businesses lost profit.