Gilded Age Capitalism

Causes and Consequences of Corporate Supremacy

How did corporations gain control of the economy in the Gilded Age?

• New technologies and scale of mass production requires large outlays of capital– “crowding out” of small

producers

• Corporations become very large and very powerful

Corporations in Control

• Monopoly Power– Horizontal Monopoly

• Controlling all production within an industry

• e.g., owning all steel plants

– Vertical Monopoly• Controlling all aspects of the

production process from start to finish

• e.g., owning mines, processing, steel plants, marketing

Corporations in Control

• Cartels

• Trusts

• Holding Companies

How did the wealthy justify their position in the Gilded Age?

• Individualism– Horatio Alger

• Social Darwinism– William Graham Sumner,

Folkways (1906)

• The Gospel of Wealth– Andrew Carnegie

Gilded Age Philosophy

• Socialism– Active role for government

• Utopianism– Henry George, Progress and

Poverty (1879)– Edward Bellamy, Looking

Backward (1887)

• Anarchism

How did Gilded Age capitalism treat workers?

• De-skilling– From craft to industry

• Wages were low– Tied to prices– “piece work”

• Long hours

How did workers try to assert power in the Gilded Age?

• National Labor Union (1866-72)– William Sylvis– Political party

• “Molly Maguires”

How did workers try to assert power in the Gilded Age?

• Knights of Labor (1869-1949)– Uriah Stephens; Terrance Powderly– Open to all workers (craft and industrial)

• American Federation of Labor (1886-present)– Samuel Gompers– Craft Unionism

Workplace Tactics

• Strike– Sit-down–Walkout

• Work to rule– Soldiering

• Sabotage– Sabots

Other Tactics

• Lobbying–Chinese Exclusion

Act (1882)– Tariffs

• Elections–Greenback-Labor

Party

• Public opinion

The Pinkerton Agency

• Private detective agency• Hired by companies to:– Investigate workers– Disrupt union activity

• By 1870s, had developed private army