The Genesis Of Industrial America By Greedy Robber Barons

Greedy Robber Barons monopolized the American economy through horizontal and vertical integrations, driving competitors out of business.
J.D. Rockefeller, founder of the Standard Oil Company and one of the richest Americans to ever live, portrayed a classic example of merging other companies to eliminate competition. Maury Klein, the author of The Genesis of Industrial America, explains that “In horizontal integration companies moved to absorb direct competitors. Rockefeller’s first stage of expansion was to acquire all the other oil refineries in Cleveland” (Klein 126). Before industrial tycoons rose to power, many small firms and businesses composed the American economy, with competition balancing powers and avoiding an individual company

Inventors during the Gilded Age served as forces behind the tycoons’ success in the efficient manufacturing of goods; Yet, their relationship is symbiotic because the innovators also depended on the industrialists to employ their creations. Historian Klein emphasizes that “technologies could develop only when entrepreneurs sensed their potential, took hold of them, and employed them in ways that ultimately embedded them as the foundation of the American way of production. This mutual dependence proved a potent catalyst for rapid economic expansion” (Klein 17). Industrial tycoons, seeking the premier technologies in the field, provided a platform and market for the implementation of new techniques, which further increased efficiency and yield in the industrialized

Mechanization in the factory production line served as the basis for efficient, high-yielding production. Charles W. Calhoun’s collection of articles from experts specialized in the Gilded Age includes Industrialization and the Rise of Big Business by Glenn Porter, capturing that “mechanization and the factory system, well under way before the Civil War, experienced heightened growth. Production in volume through the use of special-purpose and ever more precise and durable machinery … spread steadily (Calhoun15). Industrial tycoons implemented systematic, productive machines that supported a stable production line where goods are generated precisely and in abundance. As a result of mass production, more consumers in the American economy can access the highly available and standardized goods. Particularly, in his study of industrial tycoons’ contributions to the American super economy, Charles Morris details that “The cheaper, better, steel flowing out of Andrew Carnegie’s new steel plants made possible mass-produced tools and consumer products that cost less, lasted longer, and worked better than anything that had gone before” (Morris 108). Mechanization and efficient manufacturing techniques not only enabled mass production, it levitated cost-effectiveness since consumers can access cheaper but