ILRLR 1845 Lecture Notes - Pacific Railroad Acts, Transcontinental Railroad, Henry Villard

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Ideas about integrating continental space in coherent markets. 9000 miles of track by 1850, mostly in northeast. Pacific railway acts of 1862 and 1864. Railroads came to symbolize progress, prosperity, nationalism. Transcontinental railroad companies supposedly private but bound to state. Railroad construction occurred because of 131 millions of acres in gov landgrants. Menial wage work was compared to slavery. Only men, racial segregation in labor camps. Pacific railroad and union pacific railroad companies. Entrepreneurs: thomas scott, jay gould, collis p huntington, henry villard, leland stanford, and others. Functionality issues: overbuilding and oversupply, underbuilding and lack of integration. Entrepreneurs never put up their own money or own any risk. Very shrewd leveraging politics to do work for them. Long heralded transcontinental railroads couldn"t pay for themselves. Speculation replaced construction by 1880s - bond interest steady at 6% Schuyler colfax, james garfield, and james blain all invested in railroad shell corporations.

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