How the American Automobile Industry
Came To Be Founded in Detroit

• 1. Detroit was founded as Fort Detroit on the Detroit River north of Lake Erie as a trading post.
  
• 2. Detroit's initial growth, in the 1820's and 1830's, came from its economic base in flour milling. There also developed there, in addition to the establishments serving the local consumer market, workshops for repairing and supplying goods and equipment used in the flour industry. These included shipyards.
• 3. By the 1840's Detroit shipyards were not only building and repairing ships for the Great Lakes trade but also building ocean-going cargo ships. Detroit shipyards were among the first in the world to build steam ships.
• 4. The building of steam ships led to the development of an industry for the manufacture of marine steam engines. There were supporting industries in machining fittings for ships.
• 5. By the 1860's marine steam engines were a major export from Detroit. This industry supported suppliers, such as specialized engine parts and tool makers. It also supported businesses supplying metal.
• 6. The most important parts of the metal trade for Detroit were the refiners and smelters for local copper ores. This industry grew beyond supplying the Detroit market and became an export industry. Between 1860 and 1880 copper and copper alloys were Detroit's largest export industry. Around 1880 the local deposits of copper ore were used up.
• 7. Detroit at the end of the nineteenth century had a very sophisticated machine industry that made it a fertile place for the automobile industry to develop.
• 8. The internal combustion engine was first developed for boats and since the Great Lakes area was a major market for such smaller vessels an industry for manufacturing boat engines emerged in Detroit. This was probably the key factor in the automobile industry growing up in the Detroit area.
• 9. Another crucial factor in that development of the automobile industry in the Detroit area was the existence of an industry there for manufacturing coaches and carriages. Will Durant, the founder of General Motors, had previously made a fortune manufacturing carriages.
• 10. The rich offering of Detroit industry enabled Henry Ford, Ransom E. Olds and other entrepreneurial auto makers to put together their first models from off-the-shelf parts.

(To be continued.)