HIST 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Second Industrial Revolution, Intensive Farming, Interchangeable Parts
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Second Industrial Revolution
C.1870 - WWI - prompted urbanization
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New inventions and processes: railroads, steel, electricity, industrialized
agriculture
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Mass production, economies of scale and standardization
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Centered in Northeast, nut national interdependency (where the banks are)
Raw materials
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Food for workers
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Markets for goods
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Inventions: telegraph, steam liner, printing press/mass media (becomes
standardized), stock ticker
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Background: disputed 1876 election, Redemption, Black Hills War
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1876 World's Fair, Philadelphia, International Exhibition of Arts,
Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine
Corliss Steam Engine
Returned to Pullman car factory after
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Newest thresher-separator
1000 bshl/day
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Removed tons of labour from the process of producing wheat
§
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Introduced many to American System of industrial machine production -
standardized, interchangeable parts
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Anthropological exhibits of indigenous peoples were shown
Active warfare during this time
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Ideological messages being transmitted about the USA
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Large-Scale Effects of Transportation and Settlement
Midwest land especially amenable to:
Cash crops (wheat, corn)
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Large-scale livestock
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Extractive industries in the West
Silver in CO
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New technologies means new opportunities
Agricultural equipment: more production
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Railroads, ships, roads: new markets for crops
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Packaging process - meat can make it to other places and you can
ship them further
New market for crops because the world population is going up
because of better nutrition, industrialization and a decrease in
infant mortality
§
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But large-scale firms and industries need large-scale financing
With financing, came new dependencies and economies of risk
You will have less control over your life, however you could end
up a whole lot richer
§
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Finance and Financiers
Banking becomes more of an industry than it ever war before and becomes
a huge part of the US economy
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Civil War, Homestead Act, Railroad acts - new debt/lending is necessary
Centralization and globalization
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By 1880 the organization and technological infastructure of modern
financial markets was in place
New technologies that make large scale industries possible
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Rise of big bakers and are organized as LLCs
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New financial instruments: stock market, commodity exchange,
railroad bonds, mortgages
Stock market and commodity exchange
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NYSE (New York Stock Exchange Trades): 1869, 700,000 shares
per day, 1886 1m (almost all rr sec.)
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Multiplied and circulated rapidly, enmeshing pretty much everyone in a
web of capitalism
Share croppers, homesteaders, Native American allotments
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Western Mortgage Craze
Shows how people are involved in the economy
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Banks own mortgages on (almost) all houses in small cities
Sell their mortgages to corporations and the corporations bundle
their mortgages and sell their mortgages to Europe, Latin America
and other people in America
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Helps to create things like mortgage crazes
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Panic of 1873
Seen as first international depression linked to capitalism. Dual US and
European triggers.
Overproduction of agricultural good
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Over-extended credit and shaky financial web
Remember the Western mortgage craze
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Wasn't just '73, it lasted 6 years and started a pattern of boom and bust
cycles followed
NYSE closes for 12 days
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Lost family farms
Could become a sharecropper for someone else
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Tens of thousands of workers became "tramps"
Riding the railroads without work
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Hundreds of banks closed including Freedmen's bank
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25% unemployment in NYC
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Average wages fell 25%
Anger against Chinese labourers since they finished the Pacific
Railway
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Anti-Jewish violence in Europe
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Incorporation and Integration
Modern corporations
14th amendment - corporate personhood
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Limited liability - risk mitigated
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Organized efficiency
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Financial instruments
Issue stocks, invest, speculative profit making
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Vertical and horizontal integration
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Political power and influence
Credit mobilier
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Andrew Carnegie
Came to US from Scotland with parents in 1848
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Bobbin boy, telegrapher for Penn Railroad, bond salesman
Learned about the stock market and investments
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Becomes a bond salesman for the rail road
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Transportation during Civil War and became invested in iron
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Built Carnegie Steel, massive steel empire
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Becomes the corporate empire built at $1 billion dollars in the world
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J.P. Morgan
Followed father into banking industry
Speculated in arms during Civil War
Paid $300 not to be drafted
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Morgan and Co. became one of most powerful banking firms in the world
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"Morganization" of US industry - taking over troubled businesses and
organizing
Steel (US steel)
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Rail road
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Electricity (General Electric)
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The Gilded Age
Example of income inequality becoming enormous
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On chart, the first set of peaks tons of people are getting reach and income
inequality is also rising
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1860-1900: richest 2% of American households owned more than 1/3 of the
country's wealth
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Richest 1% received a fifth of the country's income - a figure that again
holds good today
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Almost all of the richest people lived during this time period
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Title becomes a title of celebration but also a critique of the harsh
environment during this time period
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Lecture 5 - Webs of Finance and Industry
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
9:30 AM
Document Summary
Lecture 5 - webs of finance and industry. New inventions and processes: railroads, steel, electricity, industrialized agriculture. Centered in northeast, nut national interdependency (where the banks are) Inventions: telegraph, steam liner, printing press/mass media (becomes standardized), stock ticker. Background: disputed 1876 election, redemption, black hills war. 1876 world"s fair, philadelphia, international exhibition of arts, Manufactures and products of the soil and mine. Removed tons of labour from the process of producing wheat. Introduced many to american system of industrial machine production - standardized, interchangeable parts. Packaging process - meat can make it to other places and you can ship them further. New market for crops because the world population is going up because of better nutrition, industrialization and a decrease in infant mortality. But large-scale firms and industries need large-scale financing. With financing, came new dependencies and economies of risk. You will have less control over your life, however you could end up a whole lot richer.
