The Rise of Big Business An Industrial Society 1860-1914 Chapter 20, Section 3

Essential Questions Should private businesses and corporations have the right to run their businesses how they see most “fit”? Why or why not? What should be the roll of a government during a time of great wealth for a few, and much poverty for many?

Jay Gould Jay Gould was a Robber Barron Robber Barron: Was in the Railroad Industry Worth $77 Million in 1892 Robber Barron: Business Leader Who Becomes Wealthy Through Dishonest Methods Jay Gould Used Illegal Methods to Become Rich: Bribing Officials Selling Fake Stock

How to Raise Investment Capital? Most Businesses in the 1800’s were Owned by 1 Person Businesses Owners Wanted to Buy New Equipment & New Technologies (Factory Equipment) Very Expensive! How Can You Raise Investment Capital? (Story of Rob!)

Corporations Corporations are Businesses that are Owned by Multiple Investors Owner of Business Sells Shares of Stock (Part of the Business) to Investors to Raise Investment Capital George Steinbrenner

A Sample Share of Stock

Advantages of Corporations vs. Private Businesses Corporations Can Raise Large Amounts of $$$ Money by Selling Stock A Corporation Continues After Its’ Founders Die (President, Vice Presidents, Etc…) Banks are MORE Likely to Lend to Corporations then Private Businesses If a Corporation Goes into Debt, Investors (Stock Holders) DO NOT have to Pay the Debt! Safer to Invest

John D. Rockefeller Most Famous Robber Barron in U.S. History! Had a Monopoly on the OIL Industry! You MUST Know John D. Rockefeller! His Company Was Called Standard Oil!

Monopoly A Monopoly is a Company that WIPES OUT its’ Competitors & Controls an Industry Purpose of the Game is to Have All the $$$ and Bankrupt Your Opponents! Charge High Rent! Monopolies Have the Only Product, They Charge High Prices $$$ Ah Pizza & Espizitos Rockefeller Had a Monopoly on the Oil Industry!

Rockefeller’s Strategy Put His Competitors Out of Businesses! Rockefeller Built Oil Refineries Around the United States Made Secret Deals with Railroads to Carry His Oil at Lower Rates than his Competitors Built and Purchased His Own Pipelines to Carry Oil (Did Not Have to Pay Rent)

Rockefeller Formed the Standard Oil Trust A Trust is a LEGAL (In 1882) Body Created to Hold Stock in Many Companies in the SAME Industry Rockefeller Purchased Stock in All the Other Oil Companies in U.S. in 1882 That Way He Had Ownership of All Oil Companies! (A Monopoly!) What Would Steinbrenner Do if He Had Red Sox Stock?

Price of Gasoline By 1880, Rockefeller Controlled 95% of All Oil Companies in the U.S. Rockefeller Raised the Price of Oil! Americans Couldn’t Get Oil Anywhere Else! Standard Oil Earned Hundreds of Millions of $$$ Dollars

Other Trusts Formed Trusts Formed in the Sugar, Cottonseed, & Lead Mining Industries It Was Legal! Americans Got Screwed! Had to Pay High Prices! U.S. Government Did Nothing About It!

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie Had a Monopoly in the STEEL Industry Differed From Rockefeller Created a Monopoly & Beat His Competition by Making a Better & Cheaper Product Company Was Called U.S. Steel

Andrew Carnegie Sought to Control All of the Processes Related to the Making of Steel Bought the Mines That Supplied the Iron Ore to Make Steel Bought the Ships & Railroads that Carried Iron Ore to Carnegie Steel Mills

Philanthropists People Who Give Large Amounts of Money to Charities Rockefeller and Carnegie Gave Away Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Why???

Rockefeller John D. Rockefeller Gave Away Over $500 Million Donated to University of Chicago & NYU Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Estate

Carnegie Andrew Carnegie Gave Away Over $350 Million Dollars Carnegie and Mellon University (Engineering School) Built Hundreds of Public Libraries

Duh… Carnegie Hall

The Gilded Age What Do These 2 Images Tell You About Life During the Gilded Age? Why Did Mark Twain Call the Late 1800’s The Gilded Age? What Does it Mean to Gild Something?

The Gilded Age (Late 1800’s) To Gild Something is to Cover it With Gold Mark Twain Wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today What Was Mark Twain Trying to Say About U.S. Society During the Late 1800’s? Wrote About Great Disparity Between Rich & Poor Corruption in Government Poverty

In the South (1860-1914) After the Civil War, Slaves Were Freed! YIPPEEEEEEE! Former Slaves/Poor Whites: No Job No Education No House No Food No $$$ Screwed! Turned to Sharecropping

Sharecropping The Southern States Stayed Agricultural (Farming) for the Most Part After the Civil War Former Slave Owners Had Large Plantations, But NO Workers Hired Poor Whites & Former Slaves to Work the Fields Rented the Land to the Workers – Workers Had to Pay in Crops

Sharecropping As a Sharecropper, You Rented a Piece of Land from a Landowner You Had to Pay For: Land That You Rented Tools/Equipment Seeds to Plant Housing Food *** Very Similar to Slavery, EXCEPT You Had a Choice!

Essential Questions Should private businesses and corporations have the right to run their businesses how they see most “fit”? Why or why not? What should be the roll of a government during a time of great wealth for a few, and much poverty for many?