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33 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Cornelius Vanderbilt
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a classic Market Entrepreneur (using Folsom’s terminology) and an Agent of Creative Destruction – a true Schumpeteran Entrepreneur. He was a key figure in breaking the steamboat monopoly granted to Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston in the waters around New York City; in the transatlantic steamship business; in the east coast to west coast steamship business; and the builder of the New York Central system which, in effect, replaced the Erie Canal.
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New York Central Railroad
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On November 12 1867 the major stockholders of the NYC offered Vanderbilt control of the railroad. On December 11, 1867 Vanderbilt was elected President of the railroad and picked his own board of directors.
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Federal land Grants 1865-1900
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Federal gov. granted land for railroad companies to build more routes.
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Transcontinental Railroad
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During the Civil War Congress authorized land grants and loans for a transcontinental railroad connecting California to the rest of the Union. Transcontinental railroad building was so costly and risky as to require government subsidies; the extension of rails into thinly populated regions was unprofitable.
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Jay Gould
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U.S. railroad executive, speculator, and robber baron. In 1881 he gained control of Western Union Corp., and he owned the New York World newspaper from 1879 to 1883. With a fortune of $25 million, he began buying large blocks of stock in Union Pacific Railroad Company and acquired control of that company by 1874.
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Panic of 1893
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A financial Panic in 1893 forced ¼ of all railroad companies into bankruptcy. Bankers like JP Morgan took control of the bankrupt railroad companies and consolidated them into larger companies. The same groups of bankers sat on the board of directors for competing railroad companies. Essentially eliminated competition in the railroad industry.
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J.P. Morgan
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His career in 1857 as an accountant, and worked for several New York banking firms until he became a partner in Drexel, Morgan and Company in 1871, which was reorganized as J.P. Morgan and Company in 1895.
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Bessemer Process
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It was what brought the transformation was the invention in the 1850s of a method of making cheap steel. Developed by both Henry Bessemer (England) and William Kelly (USA) in the 1850’s. It involved blasting air through molten iron. Launched the rise of the steel industry.
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Andrew Carnegie
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In the 1870’s began steel manufacturing in Pittsburgh. Used vertical integration: a company controls every stage of the industrial process, from mining to transporting the finished product. By 1900 Carnegie Steel was the nations top steel producing company
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Vertical Integration
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A company controls every stage of the industrial process, from mining to transporting the finished product.
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U.S. Steel
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US Steel was the first billion dollar company and at that time the largest company in the world. Andrew Carnegie sold his company in 1900 for over $400 million to a new steel corporation headed by JP Morgan. Controlled over 3/5 of the nation’s steel business.
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John D. Rockefeller
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Dominated the oil industry; he was a successful businessman at nineteen and one upward stride led to another, and in 1870, he organized the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, nucleus of the great trust formed in 1882. Rockefeller was worth $900 million when he retired.
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Standard Oil Trust
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The Standard Oil Trust consisted of separate companies all managed by a board of trustees that Rockefeller controlled. Standard Oil controlled supply and prices of oil products.
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Horizontal Integration
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Former competitors were brought under a single corporate umbrella. allying with competitors to monopolize a given market.
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Anti Trust Movement
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The ranks of the antitrust crusaders were frequently spearheaded by the “best men”—genteel gold-family do-gooders who were not radicals but conservatives who tried desperately to defend their own vanishing influence among society’s best.
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Sherman Antitrust Act 1890
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Prohibited any “contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise conspiracy in restraint of commerce. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act could be applied only to commerce and not manufacturing. The law was later strengthened in the 1920’s.
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United States v. E.C. Knight
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A case that limited the government's power to control monopolies. The case, which was the first heard by the Supreme Court concerning the Sherman Antitrust Act, was argued on October 24, 1894 and the decision was issued on January 21, 1895.
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Laissez – Faire Capitalism
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Starting with the 1776 book, The Wealth of the Nations, it was a doctrine opposing governmental interference in economic affairs beyond the minimum necessary for the maintenance of peace and property rights. In the 1880’s trusts and monopolies undercut the natural regulation of the market proposed by Adam Smith.
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Adam Smith
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Author of the 1776 book, The Wealth of the Nations, which were the beginnings of laissez-faire capitalism. Argued that business should not be regulated by government. Business should be regulated by supply and demand. Businesses would offer quality goods at low prices out of their own self-interest
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Gospel of Wealth
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It was a notion promoted by many successful businessmen that their massive wealth was a social benefit for all. Used religion to justify the wealth of industrialists and bankers. The Protestant work ethic was that hard work and material success are signs of God’s favor
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Transatlantic Cable
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In 1866, Cyrus W. Field’s transatlantic cable improved overseas communication. It was accomplished largely through the efforts of American merchant Cyrus West Field.
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Alexander Graham Bell
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In 1876, he invented the telephone. Other inventions such as the typewriter would help to improve businesses and give consumer products.
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Sear Roebuck
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Created the mail-order company Sears & Roebuck. Used railroads to ship goods to rural customers. Consumers ordered everything from hats to houses from catalogs.
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Horatio Alger
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In the 19th century, he wrote novels that popularized the myth of the rags-to-riches “self-made man.” Alger novels portrayed young men who became rich through hard work and a little luck.
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Railroad Strike of 1877
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During an economic depression in 1877, railroad companies cut wages to reduce costs. Railroad workers went on a strike that shut down 2/3 of the countries railroad tracks. 500,000 workers from other industries joined the strike. President Rutherford B Hayes used federal troops to put down the strike. More than 100 people were killed. Management used public fear of mob violence to reduce the power of labor. Public opinion turned against labor unions.
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National Labor union
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Founded in 1866, it tried to organize skilled and unskilled workers in all states. Strived for higher wages and the eight-hour day and would achieve an eight hour workday for employees from the federal government. Had social objectives:Equal rights for women and African Americans, monetary reforms, and worker owned cooperatives.
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Knights of Labor
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A new organization that took over after the National Labor Union. It began in 1869 as a secret society in order to avoid detection by employers. Opened membership to all workers including African Americans and women. The Knights of Labor advocated worker cooperatives, the abolition of child labor, the abolition of trusts and monopolies, and favored arbitration over strikes.
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Terence V. Powderly
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The leader of the Knights of Labor after they went public under the his leadership in 1881.
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Haymarket Bombing
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In Chicago in 1886 Knights of Labor members participated in the first May Day labor movement that was calling for a general strike to achieve an eight-hour workday. On May 4, workers held a public meeting in Haymarket Square. When police attempted to break up the meeting, someone threw a bomb, which killed seven police officers. Eight anarchist leaders were tried and sentenced to death. They led Americans to conclude that the union movement was radical and violent.
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American Federation of Labor
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Founded 1886 and led by Samuel Gompers from 1886 to 1924. Most successful of early national labor unions. They did not advocate social reforms (equal rights, ending child labor, etc.), worked for higher wages and better working conditions, and organized only skilled workers.
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Samuel Gompers
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He was a Jewish cigar maker, he rose spectacularly in the labor ranks and was elected president of the American Federation of Labor every year, from 1886 to 1924. The goal of Gompers was the “trade agreement” authorizing the “closed shop”—or all-union labor—his chief weapons were the walkout and the boycott (prolonged strikes).
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Homestead Strike 1894
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Henry Frick, the manager of Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead Steel plant near Pittsburgh, cut wages by nearly 20%. When workers went on strike Frick used lockouts, pinkertons, and strikebreakers (scabs) to defeat the walkout. The defeat of the strike set back the union movement in the steel industry until the New Deal in the 1930s.
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Eugene V. Debs
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U.S. labor organizer. He became an early advocate of industrial unionism, and he became president of the American Railway Union in 1893. Was involved in the Pullman Strike.
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