The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy

It could take weeks, or even months, to complete a transaction, so the merchant was exposed to changes in the gold/greenback exchange rate during that time. If gold fell (or the greenback rose), the merchant’s gold proceeds might not cover his greenback debts. The New York Gold Exchange was created to help merchants protect against that risk. Using

The very frank responses to the Mosher surveys show that virtually all these women consciously managed family size by practicing contraception and limiting coital frequency. Compared to college-educated women of the same age in the 1955 Kinsey survey, they had sex only about half as often—about once a week, compared to nearly twice a week for the K

Best-practice steam engine technology could have saved the equivalent of a quarter of labor costs at most plants. Inefficient furnaces were oxidizing away huge amounts of metal. The Germans were pulling ahead in the use of overhead belt conveyors. It was absurdly wasteful to support 119 rail-shape standards. Better management of furnace linings, mo

When Clark died after a short illness in the spring of 1873, his brokers liquidated his UP holdings, causing a sharp price drop. Gould’s broker snapped it up, and Gould unexpectedly found himself in a control position. It was only at that point, he said, that he learned that the road had serious problems, including $5 million in unsecured call debt

By 1883, Gould had become the dominant owner of, or controlling shareholder in, or chief executive of, literally dozens of railroads, some of them only for brief periods of time. The blur of activity sent shock waves of alarm through competitors even as it delighted stock traders, many of whom grew wealthy divining what Gould was up to and followin

American factories were mostly water-powered, but the wave of the future was clearly steam, and American railroad and steamboat lines bought British engines. On the eve of the Civil War, America’s biggest manufacturing industry was still cotton textiles, and the British could take sour comfort in the fact that American mills ran mostly on stolen Br

“cliometrics” or economic history.

We will ship any Windsor Organ or Piano on trial to any railroad shipping point in the United States, subject to the following conditions: Upon receipt of order we will ship the instrument to our own address, send a sight draft with bill of lading attached to your banker’s. When the shipment arrives at destination, the purchaser will be required to

As early as 1883, Captain Jones reported that he had reduced the labor cost of rails by a quarter, from 20 percent to 15 percent. New machinery in 1885 eliminated fifty-seven of sixty-nine men on the heating furnaces and fifty-one of sixty-three hands in the rail mill. In the 1892 Homestead negotiation, the company hoped to eliminate 325 of about 8

1880, when sales soared past the 500,000 mark and Singer suddenly found himself in replacement-parts hell. At his company’s rate of growth, the world couldn’t supply the craftsmen to keep up with his service and repair requirements. Other companies, like McCormick and the Ball Glass Co., faced up to their problems at about the same time as Singer,