The Gilded Age and Money

Day 3, July 31Matthew L. Daley, GVSU

I. Government Revenues

• A. Federal: land sales, primarily in the West - Homestead Act (1863)• tariffs - a tax on goods upon importation• customs - authority or agency responsible for collecting tariff

revenue and controlling the flow of goods in and out of a country• interest from bonds, gold and other specie revenue• • B. State: land sales of state held property as designed by Congress• business taxes - designated and varying from state to state• certain kinds of property taxes• • C. Local: property taxes - tied to determined value of parcel and

improvements• - usually designated for education

II. Paper Money - Greenbackers

• A. What underpins your currency?• Fiat money• Gold standard• B. Continual crisis - Which Policy is it

Anyway?– Expansionary - more credit for farmers, easier

repayments– Contractionary - greater value for land

III. New technologies

• A. The Philadelphia Exposition of 1876 - state of the art on view

• B. Mature technologies• C. Steam - Corliss engine• D. Metal goods - implements, harvesters, guns,

machine tools, sewing machines• E. Wonderments• Arc lights• Telephone• Telegraph (quadruplex, octoplex)• later 1876 - electric lights

IV. Wall Street

• A. How does it work?• 1. Stock market: method to raise money for a

corporation• 2. Exchange: clearinghouse for transactions, collect and

deliver shares, guarantee payment to sellers• 3. Stock or shares:

– ownership stakes in a company - voting or non-voting– financial markets - offer liquidity unlike real estate– Transparency: open exchange of information, stability based on

this– Central banks: in theory to act as guarantors of stability

• Troubles: cornering, speculation, watering

V. “Robber Barons” - Scale and Scope of Capitalism

• A. Andrew Carnegie - steel• B. John D. Rockefeller - oil• C. John Pierpont (J.P.) Morgan - Wall Street • D. Jay Gould - railroads/specie - 1873 collapse in gold• E. James J. Hill - railroads - Northern Pacific collapse• F. Cornelius Vanderbilt - railroads• G. Scandal - Credit Mobliere (1868)• • H. Historiography - who sets the storyline?• Matthew Josephson - Robber Barons (1934)• How do we sort out ideology and gain acceptance of new views?• • I. Social Darwinism and the Gospel of Wealth

VI. Immigrants and Labor• A. Shift in place of origins post-Civil War• 1830-1880: primarily northern Europe - Britain, France, Germany, Ireland• Asians shut off during 1880s• 1890-1914: Eastern and Southern Europe - peasants, Jewish and Catholic• 1915-1930: Europe closed due to WWI, 1924 immigration limited and set

by quotas• 1920s-onward: Southern sharecroppers, black and white, and from

Mexico•• B. Playing off skilled workers against unskilled workers• 1) Skilled workers - factories hang on to them by providing benefits like

housing, and a visible “ladder” up in terms of wage increases for seniority, etc.• 2) Unskilled workers - treated as men and women with no “rights,” and no

benefits

VI. Immigrants and Labor• C. Why did immigrants come?• Limited choices - hope of new opportunity• • D. Labor unrest - the Battle of the Gilded Age• Alternate visions of society: Anarchism / Socialism

/ Communism• Open conflict:• 1877 - Great Railroad Strike - first national

strike• 1886 - Haymarket - Chicago• 1892 - Battle of Homestead - Pennsylvania• 1894 - Pullman - Chicago

VII. Agriculture

• A. Midwest, Great Plains, and California• 1. Joining the market• 2. Valuating land - “spoiling the whole” - land has a value not tied

to family• B. New technology and tools:• 1. Futures markets• 2. Transportation - railroad• 3. Machinery - reapers, steam threshers, etc.• C. Consequences:Scale and scope• 1. Regional railroad monopoly• 2. The “Grange” - the Patrons of Husbandry - community

organizing• Frank Norris - “The Octopus” (1901)• D. The “New South” - post-Civil War - image and reality• 1. Sharecropping and King Cotton

VII. Populism

• A. 1892 and 1896 - presidential campaigns - Fusion or independent 3rd party?

• 1. Bimetallism or “Free Silver”• 2. Tariffs - agriculture vs. industry• 3. Omaha Platform - 1892• B. Main Critiques:• The American legal system paced too much emphasis on

property rights.• Monopolies were an economic and social evil.• Social Darwinism & laissez-faire were bankrupt ideologies.• Industrial society had turned individuals into economic

commodities.• Wealth was unevenly distributed.• C. “Cross of Gold”