Robber Barons used the ideas of Social Darwinism, the notion that corporate

consolidations provided social mobility and opportunity, and the great economic

prosperity available to justify the existence of monopolies.

By Robber Barons: Junlan Lu, Sushil Bhandaru, Bhargav Vemulapalli

Of course they are justified!

Who are the Robber Barons?

● Wealthy industrialists

● Extremely powerful

● Believed in creation of large, consolidated, organization

● Some came from rags to riches

WE MAKE IT RAIN

What does a monopoly look like?

● When a single company is in control of an entire industry

● No competition● Company can

increase or decrease prices if desired

● Example: Andrew Carnegie’s company: Carnegie Steel

Real Life Applications of Monopoly

● Every man for himself

● Try to buy other people’s property

● Attempt to make everyone else bankrupt

● Tend to use very forceful and vulgar techniques

● The strongest survives

Robber BaronsUse Economic Philosophies to Rationalize the Existence of Monopolies

Economic Philosophies: Social Darwinism

● Only the fittest survive and flourish

● Attracted many industrialists like Carnegie

● Legitimized the success of leading businessmen

● Believed Government-controlled economy would fail

Economic Philosophies: Law of Supply and Demand

● Coincided with Social Darwinism

● Determined all economic values

● Based on principle that humans pursue own interests in a free market

● Beneficial for monopolies

Consolidations Gives Robber Barons the Opportunity to Advance Social Progress

Advance Social Progress: The Gospel of Wealth● Great power =

great opportunity● Excess revenues

used on the community

● Wealthy men should be philanthropists

● Used to temper the harsh policy of Social Darwinism

Advance Social Progress: Great Wealth Available to All

● Acres of Diamond: people can find wealth in their own backyards

● Claimed most millionaires started off impoverished

● Horatio Alger: poor country people can find great wealth in cities

● Justified the positions of the Robber Barons

Corporate Monopolies Spur Massive Industrial and Macroeconomic Growth

Industrial and Macroeconomic growth: Integration of companies

● Barons bought smaller companies, allowing expansion of their own

● Eliminated harmful competition

● Barons were convinced too many competitors led to an unstable economy

Industrial and Macroeconomic growth:Benefits of Amalgamated

Corporations

● Cut down prices and costs

● Created high-quality infrastructure

● Stimulated new markets

● Spurred creation of new jobs for the unemployed

● Paved way to large-scale production

ConclusionDuring the late 19th century into the early 20th century, America was

transformed into an industrial empire by a group of industrialists, known as the Robber Barons, through wide scale monopolies that were tremendously lucrative. The Barons used various economic ideologies to vindicate the grandiose monopolies, which the populous strongly resented. In addition to justifying monopolies with harsh philosophies, the Barons argued that their great wealth could be used to benefit impoverished society through philanthropy and expansion of opportunity. Finally, the Robber Barons urged that the corporate monopolies’ macroeconomic growth and industrial success warranted the forming of monopolies. Therefore, Robber Barons drew from ideas of Social Darwinism, the notion that corporate consolidations provided social mobility and opportunity, and the great economic prosperity available to justify the nature of monopolies.