Businesses• Business Owners looking to make as much $ as
possible, used strategies like:
– Vertical Integration – buy all industries needed to make your product so its cheaper to make
• Ex. Standard Oil, Carnegie Steel
– Horizontal Integration – Monopolies and Trusts• Ex. Standard Oil
– Ruthlessness• Vanderbilt – railroad magnate – said “Cant I do what I want
with my own?”
– Corruption• Ex. Bribes and discounts for better rates – usually railroads
and Standard Oil, Carnegie Steel
No Regulation on Businesses
• Monopolies = no competition = price soar
• No Regard for wildlife or land preservation
• Products made were not always sanitary– Ex. The Jungle
Conditions for Workers
• Avg. income of American worker was $400-$500 a year, below the $600 figure considered the minimum for a reasonable level of comfort.
• No job security• 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, Steel worked 12 hours a
day• Unsafe, unhealthy factories – accidents were
frequent/severe, little or no compensation for injuries• Workers had no control over their workplace• Women - $6-8 a week = Avg. women salary $314 a year
Avg. Men salary $597• 1.7 million children under 16 employed in 1900.
The Breakers Mansion, Newport, RI The 70 room Italian Renaissance- style palazzo inspired by the
16th century palaces built for Cornelius Vanderbilt
The John D. Rockefeller House was a brownstone built between
1864 and 1865 at 4 West 54th Street in New York City.
The only playground equipment the children in this neighborhood had was a cellar door they used as a slide.
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