Rockefeller went into business and borrowed heavily soon owner Clevelands

Rockefeller went into business and borrowed heavily ■ soon owner Cleveland’s leading refiner ○ succeeded through vertical integration ■ control production and sales all the way from the oil well to kerosene lamp ○ Rockefeller allied with railroad executives who hated the oil market’s boom and bust cycles ■ wanted high volume traffic and gave Rockefeller secret rebates ○ horizontal integration : to have other similar companies to merge into one ○ Rockefeller asked others to join him (they had no chance), and when they did, 95% of the nation’s oil refining capacity was in his control ○ Rockefeller’s lawyers created new legal form, trust ■ organized small group of associates to hold stock from a group of combined firms ○ Rockefeller invested in Mexican oil fields and competed in world markets again Russia and Middle East ○ other companies also stated to make trusts to produce products like sugars and salts ■ many expanded sales and production overseas ○ Singer Manufacturing Co. established factory in Scotland to produce sewing machines ○ reformers began to denounce the trusts ■ some states outlawed trusts as a legal form ■ New Jersey role ranks in 1889, passing a law that permitted creation of holding companies and other combinations ■ Delaware followed, providing legal haven for consolidated corporations ○ wave of mergers further concentrated corporate power during depression of 1890s ○ America’s largest 100 companies controlled of marion’s productive capacity ⅓ ● Assisting the Industrialists

○ works of the captains of industry were controversial ○ opinions were harsh in era of economic crisis ○ during Great Depression, robber barons was invented ■ scholars viewed early industrialists as industrial statesmen ○ some historians argued that industrialists bonfires economy by replacing chaos of market competition with planning and management ○ recently found out that early tycoons used to cultivate political friends, defaulting on loans, and lying to the public ○ clear that corporate economy was not creation of just few individuals ■ systemic transformation of economy ● National Consumer Culture ○ corporations innovated in different ways ○ Bell Telephone and Westinghouse set up research laboratories ○ steel makers invested in chemistry and materials science to make their products cheaper and better ○ railroads brought oranges from Florida to grocery stores ○ department store was pioneered in 1875 in Philadelphia ■ megastores displaced small retail shops, tempting customers with large show windows ○ department stores becomes urban fixtures, other corporations built mail-order empires ■ used money-back guaranteed to coax customers to buy products couldn’t see or touch ○ active shaping of consumer demand became a new enterprise ○ by 1900, companies were spending more than $90 million on print advertising The Corporate Workplace ● young adults used to wish to become a farmer, small business owner, or independent artisan ● now male and females wished for a corporate job ●