rise of big business 1860 1900
TRANSCRIPT
Rise of Big Business 1860-1900
A shift in focus….
American Cultures I: America focuses internally
on itself
American Cultures II: America focuses internally
and to the outside world.
How and Why does this happen
From 1860-1900 the US becomes an economic super power. Vast raw materials (coal, iron, oil) Booming population (immigration) Pro-business government American ingenuity
Share of World Manufacturing Output
1750 1800 1860 1900 1928 1938
Great Britain 1.9 4.3 19.9 18.5 9.9 10.7
United States 0.1 0.8 7.2 23.6 39.3 31.4
Germany 2.9 3.5 4.9 13.2 11.6 12.7
Russia 5.0 5.6 7.0 8.8 5.3 9.0
American ingenuity 1860-1890 Explosion of American genius
1860-1890 - 500,000 patents 1790-1860 – only 36,000 patents Patents – federal licenses to make, use or
sell an invention American productivity booms
Productivity – amount of goods and services created in a given period of time.
Fewer people can do more work. Gross Domestic Product – total value of
good and services produced by a nation.
GDP of the earth in millions World 54,347,038
1 United States 13,811,200— Eurozone 12,179,250a
2 Japan 4,376,7053 Germany 3,297,233
4 China (PRC) 3,280,0535 United Kingdom 2,727,806
6 France 2,562,288b
7 Italy 2,107,4818 Spain 1,429,226
9 Canada 1,326,37610 Brazil 1,314,170
11 Russia 1,291,01112 India 1,170,968
13 South Korea 969,79514 Mexico 893,364
15 Australia 821,71616 Netherlands 754,203
17 Turkey 657,091
18 Belgium 448,56019 Sweden 444,443
20 Indonesia 432,817
21 Poland 420,32122 Switzerland 415,516
23 Norway 381,95124 Saudi Arabia 381,683
25 Austria 377,02826 Greece 360,031
27 Denmark 308,093
28 South Africa 277,58129 Iran 270,937
30 Argentina 262,331
Times they are a changing!
Life in 1900Electric lightsRefrigerationTelephoneCross country rail
SteelTractorSkyscrapers
Life in 1865Candle lighting
No refrigeration
TelegraphShort line rail
Iron, wood, brick
Horse, oxTen story buildings
How railroads changed!
Railroads of 1865 No standard
track width Unreliable
brakes No system of
signals Collisions
frequent No time zones –
trains never on time
Railroads of 1900 Standard track Air-brakes Telegraph
between trains Time zones
The new God - Progress Transcontinental Railroad - 1869
Federal government wanted to connect east coast to west coast.
Contracted Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads
Paid $16,000 a mile level land ($300,000)
$32,000 a mile for foothills ($600,000)
$48,000 per mile for mountains. ($900,000)
Built mostly by Chinese laborers
Prior took six months to travel to California.
Now a week. Promontory Point, Utah
1869 - Golden spike ceremony – first mass media event – telegraph.
Chinese Trans movie!
Chinese Trans movie
Manifest Destiny Railroads
Age of Invention Alexander
Graham Bell– 1876 invented the telephone. In 1887 - 21
customers. By 1900 -1.5
million customers
I’d like two small mediums with
large pepperoni please..
Check out our matching
mustachios!
Watson…come here I need you!
Invention When Where Notes
Safety Lift 1852 USA by Elisha Otis - also called an elavator
Airship 1852 France by Henri Giffard
Pasteurization 1856 France by Louis Pasteur
Internal Combustion Engine 1859 Belgium by Jean-Joseph-Étienne Lenoir
Bicycle 1861 France by Pierre Michaux
Plastic 1862 England by Alexander Parkes
Yale Lock 1865 USA by Linus Yale - also called cylinder locks
Dynamite 1866 Sweden by Alfred Nobel
Typewriter 1867 USA by Christopher Latham Sholes
Traffic Lights 1868 England by J P Knight in London
Air Brake 1868 USA by George Westinghouse
Telephone 1876 USA by Alexander Bell from Scotland
Four Stroke Engine 1876 Germany by Nikolaus August Otto
Carpet Sweeper 1876 USA by Melville Bissell
Phonograph 1877 USA by Thomas Edison - cylindrical
Moving Pictures 1877 USA by Eadweard Muybridge from England
Light Bulb 1879 EnglandUSA by Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison
Metal Detector 1881 USA by Alexander Bell
Steam Turbine 1884 England by Charles A Parsons
Cash Register 1884 USA by James Ritty
Motor Car 1885 Germany by Karl Benz - also called an automobile
Motorcycle 1885 Germany by Gotlieb Daimler
Transformer 1885 USA by William Stanley - changes voltage
Coca Cola 1886 USA by John Pemberton
Contact Lenses 1887 Germany by F E Muller
Drinking Straws 1888 USA by Marvin Stone
Jukebox 1890 USA in San Fransisco
Tractor 1892 USA by John Froehlich
Shredded Wheat 1892 USA first breakfast cerial
Radio 1895 EnglandRussia by G Marconi (of Italy) and A S Popov
Safety Razor 1895 USA by King Camp Gillette
Diesel Engine 1897 Germany by Rudolf Diesel - used for heavy vehicles
Oscilliscope -TV 1897 Germany by Karl Braun - ancestor of the television
Paper Clip 1899 Norway by Johan Vaaler
Thomas Edison
*Motion picture studio – first movie cameras
• Edison effect – electrons transmit through the air. Radio, TV, modern electronics
• Rubber – goldenrod• Electric battery - duracell
The Wizard of Menlo Park
Annie Oakley on film
Improvements in Building Materials Bessemer
process – Henry Bessemer. Easier, cheaper remove impurities of iron. mass production
of steel now possible. Lighter, more flexible than iron.
Age of Steel
Age of Steel
Age of Steel
Brooklyn Bridge – designed by German immigrants John & Washington Roebling. Steel cabled suspension bridge.
Longest in world at time in
1883. Age of skyscrapers
Building the bridge 3 minutes
Skyscrapers 7 minutes
The Industrial Titans
Robber Barons or Captains of Industry
Is this a good thing?
America land of opportunity!
Age of Invention sparks business genius which will make the US an industrial giant.
Entrepreneurs will thrive in American free markets. Some acquire obscene fortunes. Capitalism – economic system of
private control of production and consumption.
Laissez-faire –governmental non-interference with trade and business. (free markets)
Robber Baron or Captains of Industry?
Were massive fortunes by individuals good or bad for society?
Were they…Captains of Industry – personal fortunes contribute to the greater good! Factories, jobs,
philanthropy, overall benevolence.
Social Darwinism – rich are more “fit.”
I am Captain Industry
Notice huge wedgie
Robber Baron or Captains of Industry?
Or were they…Robber Baron – business leaders used unscrupulous means and bribery of public officials.
Barons destroyed competitors and crushed workers to create profits.
Breaking the law! Whether good or bad,
businessmen fight economic warfare… Monopoly: complete control
over a product by one company.
Monopolies are illegal, then and now, but laws are ignored.
Cartels – companies making the same product cooperate to limit supply. ILLEGAL!!!!
Monopolies, and Cartels, and Trusts oh my
Illegal for one company to own stock in another company…
John Rockefeller found a way around the law.
Trust: a group of separate companies are managed by a single board…the trustees. Legal monopoly
Rockefeller’s Standard Oil was 40 different companies combined in a trust.
Rockefeller controlled 90% of the US oil industry - Titusville, PA!
Trust me…heh, heh!
Slay the dragon! Kill the beast!
Sherman Antitrust Act – (1890) outlaws any combination of companies that restrain interstate trade. Not enforced for 15 years. Used by business against labor
unions.
Robber Baron Tricks of the Trade:
Horizontal Consolidation: bringing together different firms in the same business to form one larger company. (Rockefeller’s strategy – bought forty refineries.) Advantage -
STANDARD OIL
Power of horizontal consolidation
Your refinery
Rockefeller & Standard Oil
Robber Baron Tricks of the Trade:
Vertical Consolidation: gaining control of the many different phases of a product’s development. (Carnegie’s plan with Steel)
Advantage? -
Carnegie Steel CompanyIron mines
Railroads
Ships
Schools
Mass production is good! Economies of Scale: as production
increases, the cost to produce each item often lowers. Cheaper prices!Chevy Volt
$48,000
Horizontal consolidation
Rockefeller & Standard Oil
Ida Tarbell Ida Tarbell – History of Standard Oil
Business cycle Carnegie Steel and
Standard Oil one of many industrial giants born in late 1800s…General Electric, Dupont, Westinghouse, Ford
As giant companies went so did US economy.
Business cycle – cycle of boom and bust in economy.
GDP continues upward erratically!
Feed me!!
Industrialization and Workers
Expanding business desperate for workers! Nine million Americans
moved to cities Contract Labor Act
(1864) – employers pay immigrants passage to America if agree to work for a year.
14 million immigrate 1860-1900
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1860 1870 1880 1890 1900
AgricultureIndustry
Land of opportunity! Money! Hooray
“He that shall not work, shall not eat”
“I regard my people as I regard my machinery. So long as they can do my work for what I choose to pay them, I keep them. I keep them, getting out of them all I can.”-Factory Owner - 1883
Late 1800s factory working conditions children worked at 12 no insurance or assistance 12 hr. days, 6 days a week unsafe working conditions
675 workers killed a week in US piecework – paid fixed amount
per finished piece division of labor – workers perform
one small task over and over.
Timmy doesn’t look happy
Neither do his buddies
I’d rather be in Cultures II than
shelling oysters.
The American Dream? What is it?
Achieving the Dream Education 3 Perseverance 3 Financial expertise 1 Self-confidence 0 Hope 2 Luck Innate intelligence Positive people skills 2 Physical appearance
Chicago - 1860
Chicago - 1900
“He that shall not work, shall not eat”
“I regard my people as I regard my machinery. So long as they can do my work for what I choose to pay them, I keep them. I keep them, getting out of them all I can.”-Factory Owner - 1883
Late 1800s factory working conditions children worked at 12 no insurance or assistance 12 hr. days, 6 days a week unsafe working conditions
675 workers killed a week in US piecework – paid fixed amount
per finished piece division of labor – workers perform
one small task over and over.o Monotony!
Women in the Workforce
Women no chance of advancement in factories.
Given easy, repetitive jobs like stitching or chicken plucking.
Yesterday’s Misery 1800s you were literally on your own if
something happened to you. No unemployment benefits, no social security,
no health insurance, no pensions, no medicare…
If you lost your job you were lazy or weak. Meanwhile, the richest 9% held nearly 75%
of the nation’s wealth.
The Great Strikes
The Socialist Challenge Workers strike back first
with ideas! Socialism: philosophy
that favors public control of property and income, not private control. (Upton Sinclair was this) As a society we decide
how wealth is distributed.
Many socialists say equally.
People should cooperate, not compete.
Upton Sinclair – “I wrote the Jungle”
Karl Marx Karl Marx – 1848, wrote
Communist Manifesto. Predicted a violent
working man revolution Capitalism would
collapse leading to a socialist society.
Revolutionary socialism called Communism.
Karl Marx
Anarchists – radicals who oppose all government. Hello, my name is
Jurgis Rudkus!Have you seen Phil Conner?
Workers had 2 Choices Some workers embraced these ideas.
The vast majority did not. Labor unions – workers organize,
elect leaders and coordinate efforts for better working conditions.
Unions called strikes, boycotts and sometimes violence to force… Collective Bargaining: Process
where workers negotiate as a group with employers.
Employers feared unions Fired union organizers “Yellow dog” contracts –
Want a job? Sign here promising never to join a union.
Refuse to negotiate Scabs – replacements for
striking workers (new immigrants, blacks)
Results of the strikes… Americans associate unions and
especially Socialism with violence! Gradual improvement of working
conditions
Haymarket Riot On May 3, 1886 a fight
broke out between workers and scabs. Workers who are called
by employers to replace striking workers.
The next day at a rally, anarchists, radicals who oppose all government, joined the workers and threw bombs at police and violence erupted.
Results of Haymarket Riot
Many Americans associated Unions with violence because of the actions of the anarchists.
The violence at Haymarket gave Unions a black eye that would take years to erase.
Pullman Strike
In June 1894, 120,000 railway workers struck to protest 25% pay cuts and layoffs.
Eugene Debs, union leader, told strikers not to interfere with mail delivery, which was mostly done by train.
Things did get out of hand however and Uncle Sam sent in troops.
The Results of the Pullman Strike The Courts agreed with
business owners and they prohibited all union activity that disrupted railroad activity.
This official government opposition limited unions for the next 30 years, but unions did make gains to help workers.
Chapter 14 Vocabulary
Transcontinental railroad
Bessemer process Mass production Monopoly Trust Cartel Sherman antitrust Act Horizontal/vertical
consolidation
Piece work Division of labor Socialism Collective bargaining Scabs Anarchists
Triangle Shirtwaist Company
Not Good
Doors locked from the outside, fire exits blocked, working with flammable fabrics and on the 8th floor of a building….
Guess what happens…you’ll have to wait and see until chapter 16. Ha Ha Ha
