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By the late 1800s the wealthiest city in the United States was Williamsport, Pennsylvania, which was the center of the profitable lumber industry.  Now it is best known for hosting the Little League World Series!

By the late 1800s the wealthiest city in the United States was Williamsport, Pennsylvania, which was the center of the profitable lumber industry.  Now it is best known for hosting the Little League World Series!

== Economics ==

== The "Gilded Age" ==

This was the “Gilded Age,” a term coined by the extremely successful writer from Missouri, Mark Twain (his real name was Samuel Clemens).  

In our last lecture we introduced the term the "Gilded Age," which was first coined by an extremely successful writer from Missouri, Mark Twain (his real name was Samuel Clemens).  

The era was “gilded” because it appeared golden, but beneath the shiny surface was greed and corruption according to Mark Twain, who wrote a novel by that name in which Washington, D.C. was run by greedy businessmen and corrupt government officials.  (Mark Twain wrote several other influential novels, including “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (a journey on a raft on the Mississippi and in life based on experiences)).  The Gilded Age featured “robber barons,” who were people who became extremely wealthy through ruthless business practices.  The worst “robber baron” was Jay Gould, a financier on Wall Street who committed rampant fraud by printing false stock certificates and even tried to corner the gold market in 1869.  That led to a financial panic known as Black Friday, after Gould drove up the price of gold by hoarding it, President Grant learned of the scheme and started selling the government gold reserves on the market to cause the price to fall.  The price of gold then fell sharply, and many lost everything they had.  Gould, however, had sold out at the highest price!

He described the era towards the end of the 1880s as "gilded" because it appeared golden, but beneath the shiny surface was greed, corruption and hardship.  Mark Twain wrote a novel by that name in which Washington, D.C. was run by greedy businessmen and corrupt government officials.  (Mark Twain wrote several other influential novels, including "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," describing a fictional journey on a raft on the Mississippi and in life based on experiences).   

In fact, this was the golden era of capitalism, when American business was phenomenally successful, huge fortunes were made, and government did not interfere.  Businessmen like Andrew Carnegie, who immigrated from Scotland without any money and ended up with massive wealth from founding the Carnegie Steel Co. (later became U.S. Steel Co.), amassing a fortune that he then donated to build structures like Carnegie Hall, Carnegie-Mellon University, and the enormous New York Public Library (plus 2800 other public libraries).  He wrote the “Gospel of Wealth” in 1900 to describe his vision of capitalism.

The Gilded Age featured "robber barons," who were people who became extremely wealthy through ruthless business practices.  The worst"“robber baron" was Jay Gould, a financier on Wall Street who committed rampant fraud by printing false stock certificates to defraud investors.  He even tried to corner the gold market in 1869. That led to a financial panic known as Black Friday, after Gould drove up the price of gold by hoarding it, President Grant learned of the scheme and started selling the government gold reserves on the market to cause the price to fall.  The price of gold then fell sharply, and many lost everything they had. Gould, however, had sold out at the highest price!

The Gilded Age was the golden era of the inventions, when freedom, capitalism and almost no government regulations unleashed fantastic inventions in a short period of time.  In about ten years the United States produced these inventions: the telephone (1876), the record player (1877), the light bulb (1879), the electric power station (1882), and the motion picture camera (1889).

But there was also phenomenal successes during this era.  Businessmen like Andrew Carnegie, who immigrated from Scotland without any money and ended up with massive wealth from founding the Carnegie Steel Co. (later became U.S. Steel Co.), amassing a fortune that he then donated to build structures like Carnegie Hall, Carnegie-Mellon University, and the enormous New York Public Library (plus 2800 other public libraries).  He wrote the "Gospel of Wealth" in 1900 to describe his vision of capitalism.

 

Most of these inventions were by the “Wizard of Menlo Park” Thomas Edison, who was by the far the greatest inventor in the history of mankind and ranked as the number one most influential person of the past 1000 years by Life magazine. He was homechooled, having flunked out of regular school.  He was a failure as an employee of companies.  He was mostly deaf.  Out of money and lacking any other options, he eventually went into business for himself in New Jersey. 

 

Self-employed, he then created one marvelous invention after another, acquiring more than 1300 U.S. and foreign patents throughout his life. He invented the record player (phonograph), the light bulb, the electric power station, the mimeograph machine (copier), a telephone transmitter device for the mouthpiece (Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone itself), electric power generator, and many other remarkable items.  The wealth generated by Edison’s work (and capitalism) is astronomical.

From about 1878 to the end of the century there was strong pressure to return the nation’s economic standard to bimetallism by including silver along with gold.  Two forces drove this pro-silver or “free silver” movement:  Westerners had discovered silver mines so they wanted the silver to become more valuable, and farmers wanted more money in currency to cause inflation.  Westerns and Southerners arranged for passage of the Bland-Allison Act in 1878, which required the government to purchase $2-4 million worth of silver each month.  Also, a bill passed over President Hayes’ veto which allowed for the free and unlimited coinage by the government of silver, such as silver dollars, at a ratio of 16 to 1 relative to gold.  The government began minting silver dollars that are collectors’ items today (and worth much more than one dollar now).

From about 1878 to the end of the century there was strong pressure to return the nation’s economic standard to bimetallism by including silver along with gold.  Two forces drove this pro-silver or “free silver” movement:  Westerners had discovered silver mines so they wanted the silver to become more valuable, and farmers wanted more money in currency to cause inflation.  Westerns and Southerners arranged for passage of the Bland-Allison Act in 1878, which required the government to purchase $2-4 million worth of silver each month.  Also, a bill passed over President Hayes’ veto which allowed for the free and unlimited coinage by the government of silver, such as silver dollars, at a ratio of 16 to 1 relative to gold.  The government began minting silver dollars that are collectors’ items today (and worth much more than one dollar now).