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Robber baron (industrialist)

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John D. Rockefeller Sr., American capitalist, painting by:John Singer Sargent, 1917

Robber baron was a term revived in the 19th century in the United States as a pejorative reference to businessmen and bankers who dominated their respective industries and amassed huge personal fortunes, typically as a direct result of pursuing various anti-competitive or unfair business practices. The term may now be used in relation to any businessman or banker who is perceived to have used questionable business practices or scams in order to become powerful or wealthy.

The term derives from the medieval German lords who illegally charged exorbitant tolls against ships traversing the Rhine river (see robber baron). There has been some dispute over the term's origin and use. It was popularized by U.S. political and economic commentator Matthew Josephson during The Great Depression in a 1934 book. He attributed its first use to an 1880 anti-monopoly pamphlet in which Kansas farmers applied the term to railroad magnates. The informal term captains of industry may sometimes be used to avoid the negative connotations of "robber baron".

Impact on Society

Some historians consider that the vast accumulation of wealth among the men known as robber barons constituted a substantial mis-allocation of resources across society. The harsh reality of the existence of robber barons in the United States inspired the 19th century economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen to write The Theory of the Leisure Class. In this work, Veblen argues that the modern businessman, including the international banker, is not different from a barbarian because he uses brute force, cunning and competitive skills to make money from others, and then lives off the spoils of conquests rather than producing things himself. Modern scholars, such as the Professor of Economics Robert Heilbroner, describe robber barons in a similar way. In his book The Worldly Philosophers Heilbroner claims that robber barons used deception, violence, kidnappings and extraordinary dishonesty to gain economic power and industrial supremacy.

Other historians argue that the robber barons were essential to the transformation of the United States into a world power, due to their significant investments in industry, infrastructure, and education. Novelist, and philosopher, Ayn Rand stated that such men were among the "greatest humanitarians and the greatest benefactors of mankind who had ever lived because they had brought the 'greatest good' and an impossible standard of living - impossible by all historical trends - to the country in which they functioned." Economist Thomas DiLorenzo has argued that industrialists such as James J. Hill, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt gained their wealth, for the most part, through legitimate economic means on the free market and have been unfairly labelled as robber barons. The true robber barons were those who used political means to enrich themselves and their political cohorts through government subsidies, protective tariffs and government-enforced cartels.

New York City owes much of its monumental architecture and many of its museums to the patronage of these men, most notably Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Terminal, Cooper Union, The Frick Collection, Carnegie Hall and The Astor Library. Carnegie sought to encourage literacy and funded the establishment of 2,500 public libraries across the U.S. and around the world. Although men such as J. P. Morgan were sometimes noted for uncharitable statements such as "I owe the public nothing", Morgan nevertheless made significant contributions to the arts and universities.

The cultural impact of the massive riches accumulated by the robber barons was influential in defining the "American Dream" as it appeared to prove that a "rags to riches" story was possible in America. But as Herbert Gutman pointed out, for so many of America's working class, especially those that had recently immigrated from Europe, "robber baron" had different connotations. Fearing the "Europeanization" of America, the robber barons came to symbolize all that immigrants feared and served to inspire their participation in such movements as land and currency reform, farm and business cooperatives, labor unions, and socialism; all, at least, serving to reinforce working-class republicanism. In this light, the term "robber baron" takes on different meanings as the emphasis now falls on the class distinction between aristocracy and serfdom rather than the stealing of wealth. A Pittsburgh brakeman explained the 1877 violence as a result of the railroad requiring employees to wear a uniform. Uniforms, according to the brakeman, indicated a social status, in particular, serfdom.[1]

J. P. Morgan assaulting photographers (he hated being photographed due to facial disfigurement caused by the skin disease Rosacea, and had all of his official portraits retouched).

Historiography

Appearing in literature during the late 19th century,[2] the Robber Baron thesis was MOOP popular until the 1940s. Matthew Josephson's the Robber Barons gave the term its most enduring expression.[3] The theme had much popularity during the Great Depression as there was widespread public scorn against business enterprise.

But by the end of the Great Depression though, other historians, notably Allan Nevins, began advocating the "Industrial Statesman" thesis. Nevins, in his John D. Rockefeller: The Heroic Age of American Enterprise (2 vols., 1940), took on Josephson directly. Rockefeller may have engaged in unethical and illegal business practices but this should not to overshadow his greater contribution of bringing order to the industrial chaos of the day. Gilded Age capitalists, according to Nevins, sought to impose their will for order and stability on the competitive business environment. Their work ultimately made the United States the foremost economy by the twentieth century and were, therefore, praiseworthy.[4]

The whole Robber-Baron-or-Industrial-Statesman debate was sidestepped by Alfred D. Chandler in his Visible Hand (1977). There Chandler contended that the business of industrializing America was a historical process and not a morality play of good versus evil. As he later expressed, "What could be less likely to produce useful generalizations than a debate over vaguely defined moral issues based on unexamined ideological assumptions and presuppositions?"[5]

Businessmen considered Robber Barons

References

  1. ^ Herbert G. Gutman, "Work, Culture, and Society in Industrializing America, 1815-1913," in Work Culture and Society in Industrializing America: Essays in American Working-Class and Social History (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976), 54.
  2. ^ Howe, Maud (1886). Atalanta in the South. Boston: Roberts Brothers. Retrieved 2008-01-24. New York, that den of robber-barons, keeps the bulk of the wealth of the country as a species of giant playthings...
  3. ^ Matthew Josephson, The Robber Barons: The Great American Capitalists, 1861-1901, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1934.
  4. ^ Allan Nevins, John D. Rockefeller: The Heroic Age of American Enterprise, 2 vols., New York, C. Scribner’s sons, 1940.
  5. ^ Alfred D. Chandler, "Comparative Business History," in D. C. Coleman and Peter Mathias, eds., Enterprise and History (Cambridge, 1984), 7; On Chandler's other accomplishments in this book, see Richard R. John, "Elaborations, Revisions, Dissents: Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.'s, The Visible Hand after Twenty Years," Business History Review, 71, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 151-200.
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