Chapter 20 - The New American Economy

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