The phrase that best describes the manufacturing during the Gilded Age is number 2: "Products were made quickly by machines"
The gilded Age takes place, in the United States of America, from 1870 to 1900. It is known as a period of great economic expansion. Mark Twain, the writer who invented this era's name, described it in his novel "The gilded Age: a problem of today", as an era with deep social problems that were being hid and masked by a thin layer of gold.
The main characteristics of the Gilded Age were the rapid development of the railroads, factories and mining, creating an important increase in finance. Thanks to this, many immigrants started to arrive to the USA, specially from Europe, due to the fact that these jobs, which required professional expertise, were higher paid in the United States than in Europe.
But then, the Panic of 1873 and 1893 (financial crisis), abruptly stopped the growth both in Europe and North America.
Underneath this thin layer of gold, however, things were not looking too good for some parts of the population. Many people experienced deep economic inequality due to the limitation of monetary flow. This means that most of the money would be concentrated by the richest people only.
Another big issue that took place during this era was child labour. Since school attendance was not an obligation, and factories were desperate to hire more people, they started to take in the kids. Children were highly abused, forced to work for ten or more hours at once, getting paid very little money. This, fortunately stopped when strong movements and protests starting, resulting in the creation of laws to ban this.
