1. The Rise of Big Business
The Gilded Age
The Rise of Big Business

2. Essential Question:
Was the rise of industry good for the United States?

3. A Brassy, Flamboyant Age
Gilded Age: {Reconstruction (1877) -- Progressive Era (1901)}
brassy, flamboyant age dominated by big business values, political corruption, and extremes of wealth and poverty

4. Major Developments Major Developments: Industrialization Urbanization
Immigration

5. From Agriculture to Industry
During Gilded Age, U.S. experienced rapid shift from an agricultural economy to an industrial one 

6. Relative Share of World Manufacturing

7. Experienced an industrial revolution, mass immigration, & urbanization
USA in the Gilded Age:
The North:
Experienced an industrial revolution, mass immigration, & urbanization

8. Was the rise of industry good for the United States?
Essential Question
Was the rise of industry good for the United States?

9. Gilded Age Industrialization
During the Gilded Age ( ), the United States experienced an Industrial Revolution:
New technology, transportation, efficient mass-production spread ideas & industrial products
By 1900, the U.S. was the U.S. the most industrialized country in the world

10. An Age of Invention U.S. Patents Issued (1850-1899)
The Gilded Age was an Age of Invention
U.S. Patents Issued ( ) 13

11. An Age of Invention What is it? What is it? What is it?
The Gilded Age was an Age of Invention
Cash registers, adding machines, business typewriters
Alexander Graham Bell invented the first telephone
The Bessemer process transformed iron into stronger, lighter steel
What is it?
What is it?
What is it? 13

12. An Age of Invention What is it? The Gilded Age was an Age of Invention
Thomas Edison (Wizard of Menlo Park) was the greatest inventor of the 1800s
In his research lab in
New York, he created
the 1st audio recorder,
phonograph, and batteries
His most influential
invention was the
1st electric light bulb
What is it? 13

13. The Business of Invention
New innovations allowed for increased industrial production
New machines were incorporated into the 1st assembly lines that allowed for faster mass production
Railroads linked all regions
America’s wealth of iron, oil, coal, immigrant labor, & investment capital (money) supplied factories 13

14. The Industrial Revolution was fueled by 4 industries (R. O. S. E
The Industrial Revolution was fueled by 4 industries (R.O.S.E.) Railroads, Oil, Steel, Electricity

15. Industrial Resources: Iron, Coal, Railroads, & Steel Plants
The “Rust Belt”

16. Eastern RRs were connected to the West by 4 great trunk lines
The Railroad Industry
America’s first “big business” was the railroad industry:
Railroads stimulated the coal, petroleum, iron, steel industries
Eastern RRs were connected to the West by 4 great trunk lines 3

17. Railroad growth fueled industrial development
100,000 miles of track laid between
standardization of gauge
width of tracks (4 feet, 8 1/2 inches)
[encouraged development]
time zone adoption allowed
U.S. divided into four zones
massive grants of American land
131 million acres -- federal
49 million acres -- states

18. Railroad Construction in the Gilded Age

19. Oil provided kerosene lighting & lubrication for industrial machinery

20. Steel Production

21. Wadsworth Building, NYC
Steel Production
Steel transformed world industry:
Allowed for taller buildings, longer bridges, stronger railroad lines, & heavier machinery
Wadsworth Building, NYC

22. International Steel Production, 1880-1914

23. Efficiency & Mass Production in Factories

24. Causes of Rapid Industrialization
The Railroad fueled the growing US economy:
* First big business in the US.
* A magnet for financial investment.
* Aided the development of other industries.

25. Causes of Rapid Industrialization
2. Technological innovations: * Bessemer and open hearth process
* Refrigerated cars
* Edison  “Wizard of Menlo Park”  light bulb, phonograph, motion pictures.

26. Causes of Rapid Industrialization
Unskilled & semi-skilled labor in abundance.
U.S. population 3x from
Government aid at all levels to stimulate economic growth
High tariffs {hurt exporters (farmers)}
Abundant natural resources
H2O, timber, coal, iron, copper, and oil

27. New Business Culture Laissez Faire  an ideology of the Industrial Age
Individuals should compete freely in the marketplace.
No room for government in the market!
French -- "let it be"

28. New Business Culture
Entrepreneurs  (another) ideology of the Industrial Age
People who risk their $$$ in organizing and running a business
French -- "to undertake"

29. New Forms of Business Organization
Corporation:
an organization owned by many people, treated (by law) as a single person
People who own the corporation are called shareholders
Share of ownership is a stock
Limited liability

30. New Forms of Business Organization
During the Gilded Age, business & industry were transformed:
Massive corporations replaced small, family businesses
Managers were hired to make factories run more efficiently
New business models, such as “trusts” integrated various businesses under 1 board of directors

31. New Business Organization
Combinations of Corporations (WHY?)
increases efficiency and profits
destroyed healthy competition that often makes capitalism a viable economic model

32. New Business Organization: Board of Trustees (Trust)
Company Manager
Employees
“Trusts” use a board of trustees to manage a company

33. New Forms of Business Organization
Corporations in the Gilded Age used mergers to increase profits
Companies used horizontal integration to buy similar companies to reduce competition
Vertical integration allowed companies to buy companies that supply raw materials or transportation for their products 13

34. Vertical & Horizontal Integration

35. Monopolies Corporate mergers led to giant companies called monopolies:
Companies that
control nearly all of
a particular industry
Because most
monopolies of the Gilded Age were run by boards of trustees, monopolies became known as “trusts”
Monopolies led to a new generation of U.S. millionaires 9

36. By 1900, 1% of U.S. companies controlled 33% of all industry
U.S. Corporate Mergers
By 1900, 1% of U.S. companies controlled 33% of all industry

37. The Monopolists
Andrew Carnegie created
the Carnegie Steel
Company:
He converted to the
Bessemer process & was able to out-produce his
competition & offer
better quality steel at lower prices
He mastered vertical integration to lower his production costs
His company made more steel than all the factories of Great Britain, France and Germany combined

38. U S U. S. Steel Corporation
When he retired in 1901, he sold Carnegie Steel to financier J. P. Morgan for over $400 million dollars. Morgan subsequently reorganized the company into the United States Steel Corporation. U S

39. Andrew Carnegie’s rise from a poor Scottish immigrant to one of the richest men in the world was the great example of the “American Dream”
Carnegie did not pay his employees very much & did not allow unions in his factories…
…but he was a philanthropist who gave money to New York City libraries, colleges, & performing arts institutions 9

40. The Monopolists John Rockefeller created the Standard Oil Company
Used horizontal integration to create a petroleum company that
monopolized the oil industry,
lowered costs & improved
quality
By 1879, Standard Oil sold 90% of all U.S. oil & sold to Asia, Africa, & South America 12

41. Rockefeller was labeled a “robber baron” who took advantage of immigrant workers, driving his competition out of business, & used his fortune to influence the national gov’t…
…but Rockefeller gave away $500 million to charities, created the Rockefeller Foundation, & founded the University of Chicago

42. Captains of Industry
Entrepreneurs were able to achieve unprecedented wealth and power. 

43. The “Robber Barons” of the Past
“Robber Barons” of the Gilded Age

45. 1889 Duke Tobacco Advertisement
Giant Corporations
By 1900, 2/3 of all manufactured goods were being produced by giant corporations
Swift and Armour dominated meat packing
Duke family controlled tobacco
Andrew Carnegie took over every aspect of steel production.
armour
armour
Swift
Swift
1889 Duke Tobacco Advertisement

46. Distant Corporations
Needs once met by self-sufficient rural folk now met by large corporations usually located in the Northeast

47. Conclusions Due to the Industrial Revolution:
The United States led the world in industry, innovation, & wealth
Laissez-faire gov’t policies & new business tactics led to monopolies
However, the gap between the wealthy monopolists & their poor immigrant workers grew wider