What was the economic foundation of SF?

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Was SF a market city , or a factory city? in other words, how was it established? Also, are there any industries or employers that are especially important to the sustenance of SF today? im doing research on SF fo rmy Urban Economics class, so if anyone knows where i can find this specific information, please respond to this thank you!

-- Jeff Wilson (MacPhstou2@aol.com), October 05, 2001

Answers

Best starting place is the S F Almanac by Gladys Hansen 1995.

Good luck in your research.

-- (iversenk@aol.com), October 06, 2001.


Before the goldrush http://www.calhist.org/Support_Info/Exhibitions.htmld/Current.htmld/SO MA-GoldRushTo1906EQ.htmld/index.html:

A decade before the Gold Rush, San Francisco was an unprepossessing village under Mexican governance. Its former Spanish military presidio was all but abandoned and its mission, now secularized, had been divided into private land grants. In what would soon become San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, sheep and cattle grazed, deer roamed thickets of willow and scrub oak, and village residents journeyed to picnic, hunt, gather mussels, and race horses among sand hills and grassy valleys and along the shoreline

-- Bob Verbrugge (bob_verbrugge@compuserve.com), October 08, 2001.


Although it applies mainly to the decade of 1863 to 1873 - later than you probably are interested in - you might want to look into the book Ralston's Ring. It gives some interesting information about the importance of the Comstock Lode (through the medium of the Bank of California) in financing SF's growth.

-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), October 16, 2001.

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