1. The Growth of Big Business

2. Why? Better capital products- machines, inventions and technologies which help workers produce more. Better management and entrepreneurs- the captains of industry although considered by many to be ruthless they organized production more cost effective. Better Labor- workers to use the new machines and work in the new factories. During the late 1800’s the nations experienced a boom in industrial output and profits

4. Robber Barons implies business leaders built fortunes by stealing from the public -depleted country of natural resources and persuaded legislatures to make laws in their favor -employees were paid less and treated more unfairly

6. Captains of Industry suggest that business leaders served their nation in a positive way. building factories, increasing supply of goods, raising productivity, expanding markets created jobs, allowed many Americans to raise standard of living created museums, libraries, universities, etc

7. John D. Rockefeller Standard Oil Company Philanthropist: University of Chicago, Rockefeller Foundation by end of his life had given away more than $500 million to charity

8. Andrew Carnegie “Gospel of Wealth”: People should be free to make lots of money, then give back as much as they can afford by his death had given more than $350 Million to charity

10. Social Darwinism People/Government should do little to interfere with people’s pursuit of happiness/money most people, including government officials, believed in this principle so the government did not tax business profits or regulate their relationships with workers.

11. Business on a Larger Scale Bigger, stronger, more money, more workers, more products than ever before.

12. Differences from Early American Business Larger pools of capital -more money was needed to run these gigantic businesses so money was either invested from personal money or borrowed from investors *never before was this done on a large scale

13. Wider Geographic Span -Railroads, communication, etc made widespread business operations more feasible

14. Broader Range of Operations combined multiple operations; no longer as limited and specialized in one or two areas

15. Revised Role of Ownership owners often hired managers to run businesses

16. New Methods of Management -accounting, financing, etc. could now be done within the company

17. New Market Structures Oligopoly Monopoly Cartel Vertical Consolidation Economics of Scale Horizontal Consolidation Trust

18. New Market Structures Oligopoly -market controlled by only a few large, profitable firms -most people wanted to get into some sort of business or another, but not everyone had the means to do so

19. New Market Structures Monopoly- company that has complete control over the market accomplished by driving others out of business

20. New Market Structures Cartel -agreement by firms in the same field to keep prices high companies were always looking for new ways to “stay ahead of the game” and control the market because monopolies and cartels were not fool-proof

21. New Market Structures Vertical Consolidation - when a company owes all the phases of a products development Ex-Andrew Carnegie’s steel operations of production

22. New Market Structures Economics of Scale -- allowed him (Andrew Carnegie) to lower prices and drive people out of business because he sold a cheaper product that others could not compete with

23. New Market Structures Horizontal Consolidation-combined multiple operations; no longer as limited and specialized in one or two areas

24. New Market Structures Trust -board of trusties from various companies manages them as one

25. Sherman Antitrust Act nation’s first attempt to limit the control that an industry has over the market passed because of fears about big business not regularly enforced because of pro-big business judges