During the period beginning in 1865 to about 1900, America experienced an immense period of industrial growth. This extensive growth caused a few businessmen to become powerful capitalists, leaving the majority in poverty. These few capitalists used his/her wealth and power to control the each’s respective industry and forced many smaller businesses to go out of business with use of unfair tactics to gain an advantage. The process of laissez-faire allowed business owners to have full control over his/her company without any government interference, and allowed free market capitalism which allowed the owners to have full control over the businesses. Monopolies allowed business owners to have full control over a product or service, which caused …show more content…
The process of laissez-faire allowed free market capitalism in the United States. This process allowed businesses to operate under minimal government regulation. This system should have allowed for the creation of more jobs and the promotion of business. The process of laissez-faire in fact did the opposite and granted large corporations to overrun the industry he/she was invested in and cause smaller businesses to go out of business. John D. Rockefeller took advantage of this system and formed rebates and received drawbacks from the railroad, which gave him an advantage in the oil industry. The rebates allowed Rockefeller to receive repayment of part of a fee for transporting his oil around the country. The railroad also gave Rockefeller a discount that the railroad did not give to other oil companies because Rockefeller was shipping his oil in huge quantities. With the drawbacks, Rockefeller was receiving money from the railroad based on what his competitors paid. …show more content…
Monopolies were formed by business owners creating trusts. This allowed a single managing board or owner to have control over multiple separate companies. This method of business allowed a few business owners like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie to be viewed as “robber barons,” that destroyed every single competitor they were up against. Rockefeller and Carnegie used two different systems of integration which allowed them to form monopolies and trusts. Horizontal integration allowed Rockefeller to buy his competition, many people deemed this to be unfair because it destroyed competition and allowed him to make more money. Vertical integration granted Carnegie access to buying all the phases involved in the steel industry which allowed him not to pay for railroad transport and other fees. Many people believed that the trusts and monopolies these men were against public policies and were organized to destroy the competition, (Doc 4). Monopolies allowed for these men to rise above and have control over competitors, town, and laborers wages. Since owners had control over this he/she could control the people's lives. This granted owners to control the people, an owner could give as high or low wages as he/she wanted because with competition gone they had control over reductions in pay and the industry market, (Doc 6). Monopolies allowed owners to