Industrialization: Big Businesses: Chris Honaker

Big Businesses

                Near monopolies began to take over the industrialization of American in the late 1800’s early 1900’s. Businesses began to come up everywhere raising from just over 40,000 in 1870 to nearly 120,000 in 1900. During the Time of these businesses coming up, though, a few giant corporations took power. Like Carnegie and Rockefeller taking control over almost all of the steel and oil throughout the country.

                During this time the big corporations used vertical integration, taking control of every aspect needed for the business to run, and horizontal integration, buying out every business that works in the same field.  This created the need for laws to prevent monopolies from taking over and deciding how high the prices could be. It didn't take long for businesses to learn to get around these laws, though. Trusts were made, which gave them a way of merging companies without violating the new laws. A trust allows someone to own a property and someone else to manage it. Holding companies also came out in 1889, these did not actually produce any products but owned stock in companies that did.