Monopolies Dbq

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The era of big business started when entrepreneurs were looking to make money. “They then built massive corporations, which was so large they could force out competition and gain control of a market. Control of a market allowed a corporation to set prices for a product at whatever level it wanted. These corporations, and the executives who ran them, became exceedingly wealthy and powerful, often at the expense of many poor workers. Some of the most powerful corporations were John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, Andrew Carnegie’s Carnegie Steel, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s New York Central Railroad System, and J.P. Morgan’s banking house.” In my view from 1870-1900 big businesses governed by robber barons bolted up and had a substantial impact …show more content…
The reason was that the government and much of the nation at the time believed in the principles of laissez-faire economics, which dictated that the economic market should run freely without government interference. Free unregulated markets led to competition, which in turn led to fair prices of goods for consumers. The government did not want to interfere in the free market. It was not until 1890 in which the government put a foot down on these monopolies and effectively outlawed them. They actually came up with an act, which was called the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. One of these vast industries was the Oil Company, which was owned by John D. Rockefeller. The name of his dynamic corporation was called Standard Oil. Rockefeller was so powerful that he teamed up Leland Stanford to shut out all other small competing oil companies such as the Ohio Oil Works created by George Rice (Document H). Leland Stanford was the creator of the railroads also known as the railroad president another powerful magnate (Document B). Furthermore, he centralized control of a number of oil-related companies under one board of trustees. The result of this was him owning nearly the entire oil business in the United States and he could even set prices at …show more content…
One of these organizations was the Populist Party they were dedicated to political and social reform. In addition, in 1892 they party nominated its own presidential candidate (Document F). Workers felt as though there was no one out there who was willing to help them. The courts would not rule in their favor and the government took a “hands off” approach to the economy that favored businesses. Workers decided that they needed to help themselves so they formed labor unions. Labor unions are organizations of workers who try to negotiate with business owners for better working conditions and higher pay. Workers believed that if they stuck together they would be better able to negotiate with their
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