Big business and cities

A corporation is a company organised as a single legal business. In this period, large corporations increasingly dominated industries, concentrating economic power in fewer hands. Coal mining and the production of iron, tin, copper and lead were important parts of this expansion.

Growing cities needed coal for fuel and iron and other metals for construction and industry. The railroads connecting these cities also needed large quantities of materials. Demand from cities and railroads therefore encouraged mining and manufacturing; these industries, in turn, supported further urban growth.

The scale of change was striking. Between 1870 and 1900, the number of American cities with populations above 100,000 rose from 14 to 38.

Chicago: railroads, cattle and mass production

Chicago shows how transport, urban growth and big business were connected. From the 1860s, it became a major centre of meat processing. Millions of cattle raised on the open range of the plains were transported there by train each year. By the 1890s, Chicago processed more meat than any other city in the world.

Rather than having each worker carry out the whole job of processing an animal, companies divided the work into separate stages. As animals moved along a processing line, each worker repeatedly performed one task. This was mass production: organising work to process large quantities efficiently. Greater efficiency helped companies increase their profits.

Major corporations, including Armour and Company and Swift and Company, came to dominate Chicago’s meat industry. Their success depended on connections between distant cattle ranches, the railroad network and the city’s processing facilities. Big business was therefore not confined to cities: it also affected producers on the plains.

Why cattle ranching changed after 1886–87

The growth of the cattle industry created problems when ranchers placed more cattle on the plains than the grass could feed. This overstocking left animals weak and reduced the quality of their beef.

The severe winter of 1886–87, known as the Great Die Up, turned this weakness into a crisis. Deep snow prevented cattle from reaching grass. Thousands died—around 15% of open-range cattle—and many ranchers went bankrupt. Overstocking had made the herds vulnerable; the winter was the immediate disaster.

After 1887, smaller, fenced ranches became the model for the industry. Smaller herds were easier to locate in winter, needed less water during droughts and were easier to protect from cattle rustlers. Some ranchers bought pure-bred cattle to improve the quality of their beef. Barbed-wire fences helped keep breeding herds separate.

Higher-quality meat could command higher prices. The change was therefore not simply a reduction in cattle numbers: it was a move towards more closely managed herds and more valuable beef. Nevertheless, smaller ranches could still depend on bank loans to survive.

Opportunities attracted mass migration

America’s expanding economy attracted migrants seeking employment and a better life. The idea of the American Dream encouraged people to believe that moving to the United States could bring prosperity and opportunities unavailable at home. This was an aspiration, not a guarantee of success.

Many new arrivals came from southern, eastern and central Europe. More than 600,000 Italians migrated to the United States during the 1890s alone. Migration supplied workers for the expanding economy and contributed to the growth of cities.

For much of the nineteenth century, individual states had made their own decisions about immigration. By around 1890, the large numbers arriving by steamship encouraged greater federal involvement. The national government established the Ellis Island Immigration Centre, near New York, to examine arrivals.

Immigrants underwent medical and legal examinations. Those considered too unwell could be taken to the island’s hospital. Healthy migrants who passed the legal examination travelled by ferry to New York City. From there, new arrivals could move elsewhere in the United States to seek work and establish new lives.

Migration also produced hostility and exclusion

Economic demand for workers did not mean that immigrants were welcomed by everyone. Many established Euro-Americans were English-speaking Protestants. Many new European arrivals spoke other languages and were Catholic or Jewish. Differences in language and religion became reasons for prejudice.

Some established Americans also resented immigrants’ willingness to accept low-paid work, viewing them as competitors for jobs and wages. In 1887, the American Protective Association was founded with the stated aim of protecting Protestant Americans. Its hostility towards Catholic immigrants shows how religious prejudice became organised.

Chinese immigrants faced particularly severe discrimination on the West Coast. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 restricted immigration from China, showing that anti-immigrant hostility could become national law.

By 1900, big business, cities and migration had transformed America together. Expanding industries drew on migrant labour, growing cities increased demand for industrial goods, and railroads linked urban markets with distant producers. These developments created wealth and opportunities, but also concentrated business power and intensified hostility towards newcomers.