Monopolies Dbq

Robber barons, famously known for their ruthless means of acquiring wealth back in the late nineteenth century. They were awful. They were complete menaces to society and only ever created wealth for themselves. Or, at least that 's what is commonly taught in high school American history classes, but author Burton Folsom Jr. offers an unique alternative perspective in his book, The Myth of the Robber Barons. He provides a closer look at the results achieved by these infamous robber barons to give insight into what actually happened in the wake of these entrepreneurs’ conducted business. Folsom uses seven chapters on separate industries ran by robber barons to show, at least from an overall economic view, The United States experienced a gross net benefit by the existence of robber barons.

After the end of the Civil War, industrialization and urbanization blossomed and changed the nation. Instead of presidential power, men were aiming to be industrial tycoons for their wealth and power. To the people, these capitalists were regarded as either admirable “captains of industry” or corrupt “robber barons”. Even though to some people they may seem like “captains of industry”, but they were actually corrupt “robber barons” for several reasons regarding corruption, employee issues, and matters of the social classes.

During the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, both robber barons and captains of industry were terms used to place businessmen into a good or bad category. The term robber baron is a representation of industrialist who used manipulative methods in order to reach enormous quantities of wealth. Some characteristics of robber barons were: they depleted America of its valuable resources, forced authority to pass laws that would work in there favor, make opponents in the industry go out of business, and force laborers to work in hazardous circumstances with little pay. The term captains of industry meant the exact opposite, these businessmen did positive things in order to reach enormous quantities of wealth. Some characteristics of captains of industry were: they constructed factories to make the accessibility of goods rise, increased production, developed markets, gave to charity, and created more jobs with generous pay. While many historians believe that the industrialist of the 19th century were captains of industry there are others that would object and say that they were indeed robber barons. Would you consider the great industrialist of the 19th century to be robber barons or would you consider them as captains of the industry?

Business tycoons were gaining a substantial amount of power in the years following the Civil War. Industry was booming in America. With the invention of railroads, steel and oil were being produced at exceptional rates. Men flocked to these new industries, creating some of the richest men in the United States of America. A robber baron is classified as a person who has gained wealth by corrupt and ruthless means. By this standard history can define a robber baron by evidence of corruption and unjust treatment of workers and general public. The well known Industrialists at the end of the nineteenth century can be described as robber barons due to their unscrupulous business tactics and values.

Moreover, If you’re a company owner and you make a product you don’t want competition. But once about only ten percent of people in America own a business or company there is gonna be competition. As a consumer you want competition it forces the companies to make better goods and provide better services for cheaper more fair prices. Which then allows you to be able to buy more goods and services. Which then allows you to be more successful in life and achieve more goals and those goals faster.

Finally is the allowance of these monopolies to rise in the first place. Since there were no regulatory agencies back in the second industrial revolution, big businessmen with the idea of trimming fat in their companies could conquer any competitor by using hardball tactics of purposely

The Myth of Robber Barons discusses some of the major entrepreneurs in of the United States from 1850 to 1910. Burton Folsom also discusses these entrepreneur’s key role in their fields and the whole economy of the United States. The entrepreneurs discussed are Commodore Vanderbilt, James J. Hill, The Scranton’s Group, Charles Schwab, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Mellon. We know these men as “Robber Barons,” but Folsom argues that these entrepreneurs succeeded by producing quality product and service at a competitive price. He compares so called “Robber Barons” to the political entrepreneurs who rely heavily on government subsidy and make no improvement.

During the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, the railroads themselves created a large market for the steel and iron industries.4 The steel and oil industries were booming and corruption was rampant. Andrew Carnegie had cornered the market in the steel industry and John D. Rockefeller had cornered the oil market. Rockefeller bought up his competition after essentially putting them out of business by flooding the market with refined oil bringing down prices and profits. He was determined to pay no one a profit because he wanted it all for himself. He created a plan called vertical integration which consolidated his businesses into one by creating The Standard Oil Trust.5 These two men became known as barons and got rich beyond belief. In 1890, the Government enacted the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to prevent large firms from controlling one single industry and finally put a stop to these monopolies and trusts, 6 but it was not rigorously enforced until the 1900’s. This act was designed to restore competition and

Throughout history, there have been many problems present in the American life. In the time period between the 1800s to the 1900s, there were many problems such as, poor living and working conditions and powerful monopolies. Many reforms were proposed in order to solve these problems. The grisly living and working conditions, along with overpowered monopolies, were both addressed with reforms.

From 1865 to 1900, a surge in industry and business began to come into effect. Railroads, oil, steel, and various inventions enabled the rise of these businesses. As time went on, the leaders of the businesses would become more eager to achieve wealth. Some historians have described these people as ‘robber barons’ or people who use extreme methods to control and maintain their wealth and power. Others would chastise that belief, declaring that it is an unjust conclusion to draw. Despite the oppositions fervent belief, the undeniable evidence supports the belief that many of the businessmen in the late 19th century were ‘robber barons’. These men had a blatant disregard for human lives and an unquenchable urge to assume control over citizens’ lives that instilled corruption and greed in them.

There are different types of businesses, for example, some use monopolies, trust and pools, while other eliminate competition for higher prices. As stated in “Progressive reformers regarded regulation as a cure for all sorts of socioeconomic and political problems” , “The Sherman Act of 1890 attempted to outlaw the restriction of competition by large companies that co-operated with rivals to fix outputs, prices, and market shares, initially through pools and later through trusts” , meaning, competition is the

To what extent is it justified to characterize the industrial leaders of the 1865–1900 era as either “robber barons” or “industrial statesmen”?

Monopolies are quite dangerous economically, and are usually broken up by the federal government, with only two exceptions- electricity, and gas. These are modern examples. A monopoly is the economic term for when a company that makes a product has no competition, and can raise the prices as high as they want. For example, the most obvious and powerful monopoly of the industrial revolution was the railroad monopoly. They made money quite quickly as a shipping company, and destroyed any and all competition as the only transcontinental railroad at the time. It’s leader, Cornelius Vanderbilt came to be considered one of the most powerful people of all time, due to his control over who he shipped for.

Business leaders of the late 1800's were "Robber Barons" because they treated their workers poorly, controlled the industry and government , and they were greedy.

Throughout American industrialization, large industries were run by some of the richest men in history. These men got the nickname “robber barons” due to their creation of large monopolies by making questionable business and government activities, and by taking advantage of their workers to succeed. But in The Myth of the Robber Barons by Burton W. Folsom, he argues against these claims, and he takes a deeper look into some of America’s richest and most successful men. By specifically looking at Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, James J. Hill, the Scranton family and many more, Folsom believed that these so-called robber barons were actually entrepreneurs with a drive to succeed, leading to an improvement in American lives.