Ch. 16.3 Unit 6: Gilded Age

pg. 601-611

Industrial cities/states (2nd Industrial Revolution)

New York (Brooklyn and Troy), Chicago, Pittsburgh, Michigan (Grand Rapids)

National brands expanded

Ivory soap, Quaker Oats

National chains

Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A & P Grocery stores)

Thomas A. Edison

Inventor from New Jersey who invited things like the phonograph, lightbulb, motion picture, and system for generating and distributing electric power. This transformed private life, public entertainment, and economic activity.

Nikola Tesla

Ethnic Serb from Croatia, emigrated to the United States at 28. Developed an electric motor that surpassed challenges that came with using electricity for commercial and industrial purposes.

The original “Great Depression”

1873-1897 During the Market Revolution, due to a market flooded with goods and federal monetary policies.

Trusts

Companies combined to limit competition. Affairs of several rival companies were managed by a singular director.

The dominant industries

U.S. Steel (Combined 8 large steel companies, creating the first billion-dollar economic enterprise), Standard Oil, and International Harvester (manufacturer of agricultural machinery).

Vertical integration

Business management technique where one person controlled every step of the process, from collecting raw materials to transportation, manufacturing, and distribution.

Andrew Carnegie

Emigrated from Scottland to the United States at 13, worked with the two principles his parents gave him: His dad believed in social equality and the betterment of society, while his mother believed that surviving is a constant struggle: “Survive or sink under the waves.” Created a dictatorially managed steel industry (vertical integration), but discouraged greed and gave much money to schools, and libraries.

John D. Rockefeller

He would buy out his competitors’ refiners (horizontal expansion). Eventually established a vertically integrated economy. Gave away much of his fortune away, establishing foundations to promote education and medical research.

Horizontal expansion

The process by which a corporation acquires or merges with its competitors.

Robber barons

A.K.A. “Captains of industry.” Respected because of this ambition and economic success, but also feared because of their cruel management methods.

Henry Demarest Lloyd

Writer of Wealth against Commonwealth (1894) declared that “Liberty and monopoly cannot live together.” Didn’t like how Rockefeller managed his business, and emphasized his underhand tactics of bribing legislators and manipulating markets, and how that made a mockery of economic competition.