Through most of Chicago’s history, the global economy has been important for the city. From the late 1800s, Chicago had been a center for manufacturing and and distributing goods. consumer and industrial goods produced in Chicago were sold throughout the world. Materials made elsewhere often passed through Chicago before going on to markets throughout the Midwestern United States.

By the late 1980s, however, the number of manufacturing jobs declined, and the city's status as an entrepot for goods from elsewhere was put into question.

Reminders of Chicago’s rich industrial legacy:

Img:[Hollenbach Sausage Shop Factory Outlet, undated. Hollenbach Sausage Company records, University of Illinois at Chicago Library, Holl18_0030_0010_014.]

Img: [Industrial buildings at Rice Street and Hoyne Avenue in Chicago, 1967. Photo: Frank Las Photography. Richard J. Daley collection, University of Illinois at Chicago Library, RJD_04_01_0026_0005_003.]: contentDM: http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm/ref/collection/uic_rjdaley/id/4143 

Img: [Union Stock Yard Gate with truck passing underneath its arch, 1972. Richard J. Daley collection, University of Illinois at Chicago Library, RJD_04_01_0033_0014_002.]

While labor-saving technologies contributed to much of this decline, global competition played an important role. Some firms relocated from Chicago to areas where labor was cheaper. The economies in other countries, particularly in East Asia and in what would eventually become the European Union, grew stronger. 

Two documents illustrate the importance of European and East Asian markets in the 1980s.

Img: [The first page of a Chicago Board of Trade report on global marketing notes the new challenges from European markets, May 1987. Chicago Board of Trade Records, part 2, University of Illinois at Chicago Library, CBT0076_03_0003_0001_001b.]

Img: [A Chicago Board of Trade memo explores Japanese commodity markets, July 20, 1988. Chicago Board of Trade Records, part 2, University of Illinois at Chicago, CBT0076_03_0039_0008_003a.]

John McCarron discusses globalization and its challenges for Chicago..

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Those changes offered opportunities for trade and newer approaches to investment. But they also undermined the United States'--and Chicago's--reliance on manufacturing. The question was now whether Chicago could adapt to these changes.