This presentation will help you better understand the rise of big business in America.

1. Questions 7-10
on Step B-2
Preliminary
Book
Assignment
BIG BUSINESS
How did the rise of big business impact American
society?

2. BEFORE WE BEGIN
What industry caused
the Second Industrial
Revolution?
 What were some
advancements in
communication?
 What were some
advancements in
transportation?


3. THE GROWTH OF BIG BUSINESS

Corporations
Began in late 1800s
 Owned by people that
buy shares of stock

Share profits
 Lose investment if it fails


Benefits of
Corporations
Spreads risk
 Spreads reward—
generate large amounts
of wealth


4. BUSINESS LEADERS
The Titans of Industry

5. ANDREW CARNEGIE
Focused on steel
 Purchased all of the
businesses involved in
making steel
 Vertical integration


6. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER



Oil
Vertical Integration like
Carnegie
Also used Horizontal
Integration



Bought out competitors
Grouped companies into a
trust to control production
and prices
Trusts:
Legal arrangement
grouping together a number
of companies under a
single board of directors
 Used to eliminate
competition


7. JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN

Big business needed
places for their $$$$



Morgan was mot
powerful banker




Deposit
BORROW
Loan money, make profits
Purchased troubled
corporations
Controlled most of
nation’s rail lines by 1898
“I like competition, but I
like combination more”

8. QUESTIONS ARISE
Child Labor, Low Wages, Poor Working Conditions—is
Big Business a problem?

9. SOCIAL DARWINISM
Justification of Big
Business
 The strongest
individuals thrive and
survive in society.
 “Survival of the fittest.”
 Question—do the
wealthy have an
obligation to help the
poor?


10. SHERMAN ANTITRUST ACT

Unfair business practices
Big business driving
smaller business out
 Poor treatment of workers
 Afraid of monopolies


Legislation passed in
1890
Made it illegal to create
monopolies or trusts that
restrained trade.
 Never clearly defined a
trust.
 Difficult to enforce
 Ineffective


11. SUMMING IT ALL UP…
3 inventions/advancements that changed the way
Americans lived in the late 1800 and early 1900s.
 2 individuals that changed America during this time
period.
 1 sentence summary that uses the following terms
in order:

Big Business, corporations, trust, Social Darwinism and
Sherman Antitrust Act
 You may work together on this one.
