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How Did Big Businesses Grow In The Late 19th Century

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After the Civil War, the unprecedented industrial and agricultural growth in the late nineteenth century was due to several factors. However, the most noteworthy factors include the new transportation and communications systems as these each allowed to boost businesses. Additionally, with the aid of leading entrepreneurs like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J. Pierpont Morgan big businesses were created to expand American’s economy. The unprecedented industrial and agricultural growth in the late nineteenth century was stimulated by the rise of new transportation and communication systems. For instance, the surge of railroads become increasingly popular as the new form of transportation. The national railroad network grew largely …show more content…

For instance, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J. Pierpont Morgan each played a significant role in large businesses as they were each gifted at obtaining power and control in different industries. John D. Rockefeller was able to gain control and bring order to the oil industries. Rockefeller established the Standard Oil Company, which became the largest oil refiner in the nation, and created tactics to eliminate competitors to gain full control of the oil industries. He practiced vertical and horizontal integration to acquire his status in the oil industries. Similarly, Andrew Carnegie used such practices and was able to gain control over the steel industries. Both Rockefeller and Carnegie utilized trusts and holding companies to keep control over their industries. On the other hand, J. Pierpont Morgan worked for an investment bank. J. Pierpont Morgan and Company. Morgan had conflicting ideas about competition and seek to eliminate it as a whole. Morgan strived to generate order in the marketplace as he believed “high profits required order and stability, and stability required consolidating competitors into trusts that he would own and manipulate.” (769) In addition, Morgan gained control over most of the nation’s railroads and eventually bought out Carnegie’s steel and iron holdings, thus creating the first billion-dollar corporation. All in all, these three entrepreneurs used their skills to produce large businesses which overall expanded the economy in the late nineteenth

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