1. The Rise of
Big Business

2. Essential Question
Were the big business leaders of the 19th century Robber Barons or Entrepreneurs?

3. Causes of Rapid Industrialization
Steam Revolution of the 1830s-1850s.
The Railroad fueled the growing US economy:
First big business in U.S.
Magnet for financial investment.
Key to opening the West.
Aided development of other industries.

4. Causes of Rapid Industrialization
Technological innovations.
Bessemer and open hearth process
Refrigerated cars

5. Causes of Rapid Industrialization
Abundant labor (skilled & semi-skilled) .
Abundant capital.
New, talented group of entrepreneurs or robber barons.
Market growing < population increase.
Government stimulate economic growth.
Abundant natural resources.

6. 10. New Business Culture
Laissez Faire  government keeps their hands off the economy.
Individual as moral & economic ideal.
Individuals compete freely in marketplace.
Market not man-made or invented.
No room for government in market!

7. Thomas Edison “Wizard of Menlo Park”
Most important inventor in history
over 1,000 patents

8. Incandescent Light Bulb

9. The Phonograph (1877)

10. The Ediphone or Dictaphone

11. The Motion Picture Camera

12. Alternate Current
George Westinghouse

13. Alternate Current
Westinghouse Lamp ad

14. Alexander Graham Bell
Telephone (1876)

15. The Airplane Wilbur Wright Orville Wright
Kitty Hawk, NC – December 7, 1903

16. Model T Automobile
Henry Ford I want to pay my workers so that they can afford my product!

17. Henry Ford
Net Worth day would be 199 billion –3rd richest American in history
Assembly Line
Model T

18. “Model T” Prices & Sales

19. U. S. Patents Granted 1790s  276 patents issued.

20. New Type of Business Entities
Pool  Interstate Commerce Act outlawed Trust  John D Rockefeller
Standard Oil Co.
creator of modern corporate structure:
Richest American in History – 1.2 billion million, (336 billion)

21. New Type of Business Entities

22. Standard Oil Co.

23. New Type of Business Entities
Trust:
Horizontal Integration  John D Rockefeller
Vertical Integration:
Andrew Carnegie  U. S. Steel

24. Andrew Carnegie Genius of technological innovation
founder of U.S. Steel
philanthropist--established over
800 public libraries in U.S.
92 music halls
funded most major museums
Carnegie foundation for educational research
2nd richest American: 200 million (309 billion)

25. Carnegie’s Bessemer Process

26. Cartoon featuring Andrew Carnegie from Harper's Weekly April 11, 1903
Accompanied by this poem:
We men are only lusty boys,
Though snowy be our locks,
So Skibo's master still enjoys
To sit and play with blocks.“
Patron Saint of Libraries’
 He donated $56,162,622 for the construction of 2509 library buildings throughout the English-speaking parts of the world. 

27. Iron & Steel Production

28. U. S. Corporate Mergers

29. Industrial Consolidation: Iron & Steel Firms

30. New Financial Businessman
The Broker:
J. Pierpont Morgan
Financial genius
father of Wall Street
founded investment banking
saved country from depression in 1907 by raising 25 million in 15 minutes to loan government
collector of fine art

31. Wall Street – 1867 & 1900

32. % of Billionaires in 1900

33. % of Billionaires in 1918

34. The Protectors of Our Industries

35. The ‘Bosses’ of the Senate

36. Caused Black Friday, panic of 1869, by attempting to corner the gold market
James Fisk & Jay Gould

37. Cornelius [“Commodore”] Vanderbilt
Can’t I do what I want with my money?

38. William Vanderbilt
The public be damned! What do I care about the law? H’aint I got the power?
Shipping & railroad magnate who made fortune with help of free land given by government to railroads
6th richest American
100 million (185 billion)

39. Vanderbilt’s Summer Cottage at Newport

41. Regulating the Trusts 1890  Sherman Antitrust Act
in “restraint of trade”
“rule of reason” loophole

42. Relative Share of World Manufacturing

43. The ‘Robber Barons’ of the Past

44. Entrepreneurs or Robber Barons?
innovators
growth of America
philanthropists
Robber Barons
ruthless competitors
let their workers starve

45. Modern ‘Robber Barons’??