Enterprise and Emulation: The Moral Economy of Turnpikes in Early National New England

Across the countryside of the early republic, turnpikes—new and better roads paid for by private subscriptions but backed by public charters—laid the foundations for faster market exchanges and a more commercialized economy. They also sparked bitter debate about the moral quality of competition within a republican social order ideally built on independent households. Turnpike supporters pointed to the social and ethical benefits of "emulation," while their numerous opponents doubted the public value or virtue of any innovation that did not stem from the manifest needs of the local population. But the logic and rhetoric of the turnpike enterprises pointed to a new social morality based explicitly on extralocal or even antilocal aspirations. Within this new cultural imaginary, competition between towns or households became a measure of public spirit and a way to chart the progress of the new nation.