Before the Transportation Revolution, the US was really divided into a lot of very small markets. There was no good way to transport goods within the US. It would cost as much to bring a given weight of goods a few miles inland from a port as it cost to bring those goods all the way from Europe to the port. This meant that there was little trade within the US.
This also meant that most people did not really participate in a large, commercial economy. People (most people were farmers) grew and made almost everything they needed. They would