Big Business Content

Why were big businesses able to thrive during the late 1800s?

• Big businesses paid all their workers high wages and only gave them a few hours to work each week

• Government took a laissez-faire position towards big businesses which allowed them to do whatever they wanted in order to make huge profits

• Government strictly regulated big business which made it difficult to earn a profit

• Large factories had a difficult time finding workers

What was one problem caused by monopolies?

• Consumers had fewer choices and were forced to pay whatever price stated for products

• Consumers had many different choices for products which caused prices to go down

• Workers had many different choices for where they could work

• Wages were high because workers ad many different choices for where they could work

Why would business leaders favor laissez-faire capitalism and Social Darwinism?

• Business leaders believed it was their duty to pay their workers high wages and provide safe working conditions

• Most business owners that all men were created equal and therefore should be paid well

• Business owners did not want the government destroying their independence, reducing profits, or hurting the economy

• Workers did not think they deserved to earn livable wages and have safe working conditions

Why did the government pass the Sherman Antitrust Act?

• As the power of giant corporations grew, the government became concerned that there was a lack of free competition

• The Sherman Antitrust Act was very easy to enforce

• The South had a very easy time recovering from the Civil War and quickly built large factories that employed many people

• Entrepreneurs welcomed government regulation for their businesses

How was J.P. Morgan able to control his competition?

• He bought up all the small regional railroads and consolidated them into a large network

• He built a town for all of his workers to live in

• J.P. Morgan became the President of the United States and forced all of his competition to go out of business

• J.P. Morgan took over all of his competition and merged them together into one large business

What was the purpose of trusts?

• So people could count on one another and feel safe

• Competing companies could put control of their businesses under a single group of trustees so they could completely control their industry

• To give consumers choice and to drive prices down

• To create an competition on industry so workers could compete for higher wages and better woking conditions

Andrew Carnegie

• One of the first industrial moguls to make his own fortune. His rise from rags to riches made him a model of the American success story

• Made his fortune by taking over and merging other people's businesses

• He formed trusts, in which competing companies put control of their businesses under a single group of trustees

• He was a single seller of a product

Laissez-Faire

• A french word meaning "french fries"

• A word that means extreme government intervention

• An international treaty designed to benefit big businesses

• A form of capitalism that allows companies to conduct business without intervention by the government

Social Darwinism

• A form of capitalism that allows companies to conduct business without intervention by the government

• A law passed in 1941 that established new nations throughout Europe

• An economic and social philosophy based on the theory of evolution by natural selection-holding that a system of unrestrained competition will ensure the survival of the fittest

• An international treaty designed to benefit big businesses

J. P. Morgan

• One of the first industrial moguls to make his own fortune. His rise from rags to riches made him a model of the American success story

• He was a banker known for reorganizing businesses to make them more profitable gaining control of them

• He formed trusts, in which competing companies put control of their businesses under a single group of trustees

• He was a single seller of a product