Civil War Economy

Following the Civil War corporations began to develop at a steady pace. The needed fast transportation and abundance of materials during the Civil War fueled the correct conditions to give rise to the large-scale enterprises and financial capitalism in the United States after the Civil War. Resources such as natural resources and a growing population, paired with large corporation and the government, were the conditions that gave rise to the large-scale enterprise and financial capitalism in the United States following the Civil War. Though there were many benefits from these conditions there were multiple problems that resulted. Natural resources such as coal, iron, copper, lead, gold, lumber, oil, and petroleum were heavily cultivated after
By owning all of the modes of production, Carnegie was able to sell and make his product for a low price. However, as corporations began to rise other forms of business combination were created. A pool or cartel was an agreement between competitors to divide the market and fix the price. This type of business combination was mostly done to railroads and the telephone because there was a fixed production quota and it assisted any firm in agreement as long as the economy was functioning well. A merger was a legal consolidation of two companies into a single company, an acquisition was when one company took over another company and established a new owner. These two types of business combinations only worked together when a company became an acquisition and then became a merger. Interlocking directorates were separate businesses with a link between corporations because one person would sit in on all of the separate businesses boards. All of the different forms of business combinations influenced the rise of large-scale enterprises and the financial capitalism because men like Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan, were able to control a majority of the market and thus, controlled the system of wealth to the classes establishing an unequal distribution of corporate power and a gap in the class
This meant that he was the main controller of the oil industry and therefore controlled the consumer and producer aspects of the business. At the time the government was not stepping in to regulate monopolies allowing men like Rockefeller to continue to grow their business and take over more industries creating zero competition. This became a problem because there were few large corporations who controlled a majority of the market. With a concentration of wealth those in control of the companies controlled a major portion of the total wealth of the United States. This created a gap between the different levels of society and there was no regulation by the government to control the gap establishing economic problems in the long run. An abuse of workers was not uncommon during the rise of large-scale enterprises. There was an idea of caveat emptor meaning the producer and consumer assumed all of the risks associated with making or using a product. Workers also worked twelve hour days, six days a week, and children of the age of five were employed making child labor an issue. These were not the only problems formed during the time of large-scale enterprises and financial capitalism, but they were some of the most impacting resulting in a needed change by the