Railroads
________ are interstate → Can not be regulated by state govt.
Monopoly
________- 1 company controls entire industry.
Pool
________- Informal alliance of producers + share markets.
1836
Reorganized patent law + Patent Office
1883
Completed
1885
1st skyscraper completed
1893
Great Northern Railroad finished
1870
Forms Standard Oil
1911
Breakup of Standard Oil
1855
Bessemer process receives patent
1895
Begins issuring annual reports
"Gospel of Wealth"
Philanthropy
1901
Sells US Steel
1889
Andrew Carnegie
1877
Coined
1887
Formed
Pool
Informal alliance of producers + share markets
Trust
Control smaller companies → Reduce competition
Monopoly
1 company controls entire industry
1895
Begins own investment firm
1879
Progress and Poverty
1888
Looking Backward
1894
Wealth Against Commonwealth
1877
Munn v. Illinois
1887
Interstate Commerce Act
1890
Passed by Congress
Patents
A government authority or license conferring a right or title for a set period, especially the sole right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention
Brooklyn Bridge
A suspension bridge across the East River in New York City; opened in 1883
Skyscrapers
High-rise buildings of unusual height, generally greater than 40 or 50 stories; symbolized the go-go and up-up drive that “America” meant to itself and much of the world
James J. Hill
Chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwest, the northern Great Plains, and Pacific Northwest
John D. Rockefeller (Standard Oil)
Formed the Standard Oil Company on January 10, 1870 with his business partners and brother; made him one of the world's first billionaires and a celebrated philanthropist
Bessemer Process
An industrial process for making steel using a Bessemer converter to blast air through molten iron and thus burning the excess carbon and impurities
Stock Market
The aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks, which represent ownership claims on businesses
Andrew Carnegie (US Steel)
Led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history
The Gospel of Wealth
An article written by Andrew Carnegie in June of 1889 that describes the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-made rich
Social Darwinism
Belief in “survival of the fittest”—the idea that certain people become powerful in society because they are innately better
Robber Barons vs. Captains of Industry
The term "robber baron" was applied to powerful nineteenth-century industrialists who were viewed as having used questionable practices to amass their wealth. On the other hand, "captains of industry" were business leaders whose means of amassing a personal fortune contributed positively to the country in some way.
Whiskey Pool
Groups of distillers started getting together in the late 1870s to form loose (and illegal) arrangements where members would make a gentleman’s agreement not to overproduce
Horizontal Integration
The process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain
Vertical Integration
Absorption into a single firm of several firms involved in all aspects of a product's manufacture from raw materials to distribution
JP Morgan
Known for reorganizing businesses to make them more profitable and stable and gaining control of them
Henry George
His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era
Edward Bellamy
An American author, journalist, and political activist most famous for his utopian novel Looking Backward
Henry Demarest Lloyd
A 19th century American progressive political activist and pioneer muckraking journalist
Interstate Commerce Act
A United States federal law that was designed to regulate the railroad industry, particularly its monopolistic practices
Sherman Antitrust Act
Authorized the federal government to institute proceedings against trusts in order to dissolve them