Even as the federal government liberalized its land policy, speculators were always a step ahead. Long before the minimum land parcel was set at 40 acres in 1832 speculators had been selling 40-acre packages to farmers. Small farmers preferred these small lots because the land they purchased was almost always covered with dense forest. A landowner could clear no more than ten to twelve acres per year. Since most farmers had to take out loans to purchase new land, they shied away from the prospect of spending more than four years simply clearing land until they could use all of it to grow cash crops and repay their loans, which charged hefty interest. Few farmers bought more than 160 acres.

The speculative boom was accompanied by the growing availability of credit specifically for land speculation. The chartering of the Second Bank of the United States in 1816 led to the increasing amount of money in circulation and to the chartering of many smaller state banks. In 1812, the circulation of all bank notes was $45 million. By 1817, this number had grown to $100 million. More often than not, these new state banks were chartered so that they could lend their own directors capital to invest in land speculation.

The land boom meant that farmers were forced into cash cropping in many cases. Unable to repay large loans any other way, farmers who had ventured west expecting to find land for conservative subsistence farming became entrepreneurs. Wanting land of their own, but forced to raise cash crops to take advantage of rising agricultural prices, many over farmed their lands in efforts to repay their loans, and were forced to move on to new western lands and repeat the pattern.

Popular pages: Westward Expansion (1807-1912)