Justin Clement APUS DBQ Big businesses controlled the economy and politics throughout 1870-1900. They were in control of the prices for certain items because they destroyed their smaller competitors until there was no competition left. They had much sway over politics and took away the people’s say. As we can see from Document A, between 1870-1899, the price for food, fuel, lighting and living decreased with the emergence of big businesses.
Some of the ways Monopolies because monopolies were through both horizontal and vertical integration, These two processes were the foundation of Industrial businesses like the Standard oil company led by Rockefeller and Carnegie steel, it allowed these power houses to control the amount of competition they had and how much it cost. These companies would have the reduced processing price because they set the price then sold it at a cheaper price, putting other businesses in shambles, An example of this is in (Doc H). This apparent genius of a process made it so people could only buy their product from them, it did allow for them to fix prices for items like food, fuel.(Doc A) this did allow for a sort of comfortable lifestyle that was defined as American consumerism. Through corporations like sears in the 1870s people were able to buy luxuries through this new affordable lifestyle. (Doc I).
The primary principal antitrust regulation was the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which emerged in large part from public dissatisfaction with the monopoly power gained by way of general Oil in the oil refining marketplace. The Sherman Act prohibits
The Gilded Age was a time of good and bad economic growth. In America during post civil war times, years 1870 to 1900, the nation was prospering on the surface, but was corrupt underneath; large businesses took control of the economy, changed society, and influenced politics nefariously. By the end of the nineteenth century, monopolies and trusts exercised a significant degree of control over key aspects of the American economy. Carnegie used vertical integration to take over the steel industry. He then set up a mega trust with Rockefeller, who was in the gas and oil industry, JP Morgan, who was a banker, and Vanderbilt, who was high up in the railroad industry.
Monopolies in America during the late nineteenth century held various effects on the nation’s economy. They increased the amount of jobs for the struggling, provided necessary capital, and introduced new inventions that are still used today. On the other hand, monopolies continued the spread of corruption in enterprise. The creation of monopolies brought forth multiple benefits for the country. Rockefeller stated that with monopolies came expansion of business.
It bought up other companies across the country. In just over 10 years, it owned almost all the oil in America. " The monopolist can set his own price for his product without worrying about competition from other
Although the argument that the Gilded Age did not have much of an effect on today's industry could be created, the role it played in changing the laws that actualize our reality today is only present due to this time. The Gilded Age, though it appeared to be a sensational time of growth, on the outside it was driven by power-hungry trusts with enough power to influence the government. Monopolies, to increase profits would turn jobs into a plant of never-ending production with underpaid workers, and undervalued staff. These Trusts had monopolies on different products where they could increase or decrease the prices without the thought of what would happen to the worker. During the Gilded Age Trusts gained power by influencing the choices of governmental figures.
Furthermore, the monopolies got rid of the competition so there was no competitive price point. This was not fair for the commoner because the businesses could change the cost of their products and people would have to pay what they charged. The United States has tried to remove all of the monopolies starting with President Theodore Roosevelt. Today there are practically no monopolies in the United States, but in two-thousand four Microsoft was sued for a monopoly of their product Microsoft Word, this was a very rare
Corruption was prevalent in the United States during the 1900s. Fraud existed in major industries, such as monopolies or unsafe working conditions. Several people wanting reform wrote books and articles about the industries which made a large impact on the consumers and users of industries. This put pressure on the president to make changes in regulating these industries. Muckrakers, a group of journalists, exposed corrupt issues to the American public, which brought reform to many major industries such as oil, railroads, and government.
During the Progressive Era there were multiple of changes occurring that people became overwhelmed. New resources in the oil market, industrialization, fights for equality. There were many factory jobs, however, no one to stand up for the workers. So of course people will turn to their government for help, the power house of the country. However, even the government was picky in what they helped with.
On one hand, the American Pageant believed that the government did attempt to effectively curb the corruption, while on the other hand, Howard Zinn believed that the government was ineffective. In Howard Zinn’s chapter one notices that the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which was originally created for the sole purpose of “forbading combinations in restraint of trade”, becomes ineffective due to the U.S vs E.C Knight Co. court case, which limited the power of the government to regulate monopolies due to the loopholes in the Sherman act created by the government, rather it was used to stop strikes which in turn helped monopolies. Based on Howard Zinn’s perspective, one can argue that the government was unsuccessful in curbing the corruption. Moreover, Zinn argued that the Interstate Commerce Commision (ICC), whose purpose was to regulate the railroads. Instead, it helped the railroads, as it helped them gain public support as the railroads are supposedly being regulated by the government when in reality, the ICC’s “supervision was almost entirely nominal.”
The Gilded Age was a period of time in the United States where industrialization was advancing at an alarming rate and the economy was expanding quickly. However, through all of this success many people were in poverty and the rich got richer while the poor got poorer. The monopolies were the main cause of the Gilded Age and the problems that came along with it. Jacob Riis’s views were biased to an extent, because he is a product of his time and blamed the immigrants for most of the problems during the Gilded Age.
In the later part of the 1800’s there were many big changes taking place. A few of which was the rise of cities, industrialization, and Big Businesses. Prior to this point in history many people made their own items to provide for themselves and businesses were mostly locally owned shops ran by people who knew their customers well and put the customers before anything else. However the growth of large companies and corporations changed this drastically. The owners knew nothing about their customers and their main concern was how much profit was made.
A monopoly is defined as “a commodity controlled by one party” (Merriam-Webster dictionary). Monopolies are terrible for the American citizen because it allows the producer of the commodity to be in complete control of the citizen via rising the prices of necessities. Railroads were used for many things during the Gilded age, such as shipping and traveling. When railroad companies started to monopolize, the state of Ohio tried it’s best to stop it but failed as a result of the commission not being able to dictate the railroad companies. After the states had failed, the United States Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887 to try and regulate prices and make those prices public (Interstate Commerce Act).
Additionally, monopolies regarded as essential and sizeable in power may need public regulation or ownership instead of private (Friedman, 1975). Under Freidman’s definition of “monopolies and similar market imperfections”- the absence of alternatives, this paper finds it empirical to consider the government-supported institutions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as monopolies. In which there was an improper use of government intervention and a lack of proper intervention to tackle the monopoly issue. This will be discussed later in the
