INDUSTRY ON THE MOVE

RAPID ADVANCES 1870-1900 a BOOM in industrial growth Coal, oil, electricity, steel and railroads Inventions happening like wildfire Bessemer process key

Process of making steel, quicker and more efficient

Started in England, had to have it in US

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Explosion of inventive activity Goal to harness this and control it Invention factories established Thomas Edison key in this movement

Organize systemControl R&DProduce ideas in a efficient and profitable

way

COMMUNICATION AND TRANSPORTATION Concept was key to success Scrambling to better communicate and

transport goods Telegraph: 1844, by 1861 lines covered

76,000 miles Soon outdone Telephone: 1876 Alexander Graham Bell

Proved to be a great invention

CHANGES TO BUSINESS PRACTICES The Corporation

Advantages of the corporation: raise large sums of money, outlive its owners, limited liability, separated owners from day-to-day management

By the turn of the century, corporations were making two-thirds of all manufactured products in the U.S.

An International Pool of LaborGlobal labor networkMigration chainsDomestic sources

CONT….. Hiccups in Railroad industry

Railroads saddled with enormous fixed costs: equipment, payroll, high debts

Pooling: informal agreements among competing companies to act together

The Challenge of FinanceNew ways of raising money; stocks Investment bankers advised companies

about their business affairs

STRATEGIES Horizontal combination

Eliminate competition by buying others out Vertical combination

Controlling all stages of production Trusts

Way to get around state regulations, did not actually “own” business

COST OF GROWTH Early on evidence of environmental

concerns Labor concerns arising

Unions on the rise Big business in the hands of a few

People fearing the worst Regulation limited