The Impact Of Big Business In The United States During The Late 19th Century

The Impact of Big Business in the United States during the Late 19th Century

The late 19th century became the age of big business because of horizontal integration, laissez-faire, monopolies, and trusts. Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Gustavus Swift influenced the rise of corporations. Andrew Carnegie created his own iron manufacturer and refined iron into steel making him a top world producer. John D. Rockefeller was the king of petroleum products and pioneered horizontal integration. Gustavus Swift pioneered vertical integration and invested in refrigerated cars. Labor became organized and unions arose. The Knights of Labor, farmers and workers cooperative alliance, and the American Federation of Labor were created to insure

The entrepreneurs and businessmen of these corporations became very powerful and made a large profit for themselves. An example of an extremely powerful businessman was Andrew Carnegie. He created his own iron manufacturer and then sold his network to railroad businesses. Carnegie refined iron into steel, which advanced the ability to build stronger and taller buildings such as skyscrapers. “Technological and business efficiencies allowed Americans firms to grow, invest in new equipment, and earn profits even as prices for their products fell.”(Henretta, Edwards, Self. Page 511). Another example is John D. Rockefeller who became successful during the Civil War because of the kerosene business and borrowed heavily to expand capacity. Through vertical integration, Rockefeller controlled production, sales, oil fields, and developed a distribution network. He became allies with railroad executives, which gave him an edge of competitors. Rockefeller’s lawyers created trust to hold stocks from all the combined firms, managing the entire business. On last example of vertical integration is Gustavus Swift who had engineers create refrigerated cars to ship meat. As Swift controlled all aspects of production as he made huge profits, his work force was under paid. He also used predatory pricing to keep competitors on their

The Knights of Labor accepted men, women, blacks, whites, and anyone who wanted to contribute to the organization. The union included more the skilled craftsmen, but farmers and domestic workers. The Knights expressed an eight-hour workday, cheaper streetcar fares, and better garbage collection. The violence of the Hay Market Riot brought the Knights down and ended with eight anarchists being executed. The Knights of Labor were down, but not out as the Farmers’ Alliance arose to conquer