Industrial Revolution Case

Barbara Harvey

January 31, 2015

Mr. Connolly

History 122

19th Century America due to great advancements in technology, was a rapidly growing country. Full of new inventions, transformations, economic and social development and also new ways of thinking. Most of this development taking place in the north as the south still relied on cash crops as their primary income.

The remarkable growth that took place was due in part to the abundance of raw materials, largest growing labor supply, technology, entrepreneurs and the domestic market for manufactured goods. The inventions of the telegraph, telephone, radio, electricity, steam engine, refrigeration and the discovery of many uses for natural resources created a brand new lifestyle for many.

Industrial technology convinced many businessmen to build their own research operations. By doing this, they were able to keep the government less involved with their own doings and also with less interference. Businesses began to see that with the development of technology, that they could get more production done with less man hours and were able to provide higher wages to their employees. But the higher wages and everyone working together for the greater good did not last long as greed began to take place. The railroad was still the principal agent of industrial development. However, it was not as significant as an individual for it contributed to the growth of a new institution called the Modern Corporation.

Stocks were created as the reality that modern corporations could not be financed by one single person alone at this level. Entrepreneurs could sell stock in their company and this would help them to build up a lot of cash money so that they could take on other projects.  The investors in the stocks liked this as they had nothing to lose except their investment if this did not work. Some corporations grew so large they were able to buy up the smaller companies. This hurt the farmers, workers and middle class businessmen and many others considered the new capitalism to be a threat to their own survival. The industry was then changing into a new form of corporate economy.

The wealthy capitalists defended their wealth and ways of doing business by stating that they had worked hard at earning their money and power through their own individual intellect. If you had failed as a businessman, you had only you to blame and that society would benefit from eliminating the weak. Critics of the wealthy entrepreneur,  state that they only reason they earned their wealth was not of such intelligence, but because they replaced the natural workings of the market place by creating such large monopolies that they would be protected from competition. Monopolies began to take over and make prices whatever they wanted them to be. Which caused several recessions each one worse than the prior one.