In the post-Civil War era, big business in the United expanded dramatically and rapidly. This expansion led to a stark increase in the production of American goods, in the amount of unskilled laborers, and in the amount of wealth in the country, while simultaneously eliminating small-scale competition and sharply weakening the demand for skilled workers; furthermore, the expansion of big business caused unprecedented large scale corruption in the political system. The American people responded to these impacts through both an increased participation in consumerism and the formation of both political and economic organizations that sought to curb the prodigious influence of big business on American society.
Big business led to a drastic expansion in the production of American goods and the amount of capital in the nation. Big business al specifically increased the production of energy. A graph showing the food, fuel, and lighting prices as well as the standard of living illustrated that prices for food, fuel, and lighting declined significantly between 1870 and 1899 and that the standard of living also slightly decreased. These decreases were due to big business and the ability to mass produce these utilities by companies like Pillsbury and Standard Oil and due to the utilization of technological innovations such as the use of the Bessemer Converter (used to mass produce steel) by US Steel (A). Mass production also led to an increase in the amount of wealth in the United States. Industrial exports, especially steel, sharply increased because of the mass production of products by massive corporations like US Steel and Ford Automobiles. Through the wealth created by big business, the United States saw the first large scale charity work by industrialists.
Large corporations produced immense, concentrated amounts of wealth in American society; through their concentrated fortunes, many American industrialist were enabled to give back to the nation and society. Andrew Carnegie, in Wealth, stressed the need for the rich to give back to the poor and present them with an opportunity to better their social and economic situation. Carnegie, himself once a poor Irish immigrant, set up a trust to provide libraries for the urban poor as a means of climbing the socioeconomic ladder (E). Other industrial leaders made similar efforts as Carnegie. John D. Rockefeller, for example, set up similar trusts to bolster the situation of the poor. Large scale corporations not only impacted the poor of American society with an increased amount of charity work, but also with an increased amount of job opportunities.
Large-scale businesses also led to a myriad of job opportunities for unskilled workers and minorities. A photograph of female typists in 1902 exemplified the magnitude to which minority groups and unskilled laborers were employed under big business. Although wages were low and working conditions were poor, big business did create hundreds of thousands of previously unavailable job opportunities for minority groups and unskilled workers (J). along with new job opportunities came mass production and with this mass production, came the American response of a growing involvement in consumer culture.
The American people responded to mass production by purchasing more goods and strengthening the consumer culture. Theodore Dreiser, in Sister Carrie, illustrated the the effect of department stores on the public and the increasing urbanization and consumerism associated with it. These department stores--such as those of the Montgomery Ward Company--were enabled by the ability to mass produce consumer goods and appealed mostly to those who could afford them--namely, the upper and middle classes (I). So, consumerism was a response to big business’s impact on the American people that was largely limited to the wealthy or those who could afford to consume goods. However, Big Business did sharply limit competition in the market and harm the local economy.
Big business monopolized industry and harmed the local economy. As noted in by George Rice in “How I Was ruined by Rockefeller”, big business eliminated competition through methods such as vertical and horizontal integration, utilizing the theories of economies of scale, and, perhaps most significantly, through the rebate on shipping goods by railroad. Through these practices, small companies had essentially no way to avoid the monopolization of their companies by a bigger one, such as Rockefeller’s Standard Oil (H). Large scale corporations, utilizing Taylorism, also sharply cut the demand for skilled workers. The economist and engineer David Wells in 1889 discussed this bypass of the skilled worker in the new industrial system (C). Because Industrialist could produce the same product as a skilled worker more cheaply and efficiently, the decline of the skilled worker came about rather quickly. Big business not only monopolized the economy, but also caused unprecedented corruption in the political system.
Big business impacted American politics by establishing a firm and corrupt foothold in the government. A labor leader in 1887 illuminated the vast amount of control corporation owners had, not only in the economy, but in American society as a whole, most notably in politics (C). The amount of control big business had in politics was incredibly large, best depicted in these of the Sherman Antitrust Act to break up labor unions by the federal government (which was controlled by industrialists). Joseph Keppler’s political cartoon in Puck described the massive corruption in the political system to the extent that he claimed that the Senate was no longer for the people, but now for the leading industrial tycoons (D). The American people responded to the unprecedented influence of big business in society by forming political and economic organizations that sought to curb the authority of large corporations.
Perhaps the most significant response of the American people to the impacts of big business on society was the formation of political and economic organizations to combat the authority of big business. Samuel Gompers, leader of the American Federation of Labor, demanded that corporations improve conditions and wages for the worker and recognize the right of workers to unite for a common voice to combat the corporations. Other unions like the Knights of Labor and the Grangers sought to limit the authority of big business and used tactics such as striking. The most notable of which were the Haymarket Square and Pullman Strikes; however, the government did not intervene on the side of labor in either instance, once again illustrating the corruption of the political system by big business. Other organizations sought to use politics as a means to combat big business. The People’s Party stated in their platform that their goal was to limit the influence of big business in the government and return authority to those it belongs to--the people (F). Both the PEople’s party and the Grangers established considerable gains in ending corruption in the political system; The People’s Party removed many corrupt officials from office and the Grangers established laws the benefited farmers. This was a response mostly confined to the poor and the progressives of the middle class.
In conclusion, Big business impacted the economy through monopolization, increased production, and the employment of unskilled laborers; moreover, big business caused political corruption, to which the American people responded with organizations to combat the authority of big business in society and with increased consumerism
