The Takers and the Makers: Montgomery-BeyondEquality

Entrepreneur and Wage Earner

This chapter looked at two facets of the American economy in the 1860s. One part was manufacturing, and the other was labor.

In the 1860s, the country was changing with the building of railroads, telegraphs, and ocean-going steamships. It opened the way to manufacturing and mass production. In the 1860s, there were four major economic components: mining, agriculture, construction, and manufacturing. Mining was the most stable of the four components. Although mining was more reliable than manufacturing, manufacturing was dominated by the wealthy elite, leaving little room for the struggling entrepreneur.

“Furthermore, the entrepreneur’s market of the sixties was seldom local, but regional or national. They have even given adequate demand for his wares. The entrepreneur could not reach potential customers. He needed the intervention of transportation companies and jobbers who bought and moved wholesale lots of goods”. The up-and-coming entrepreneur did not stand a chance against the new manufacturing elite, their capital. “Their customer base was the established “old elite”  businessmen. They primarily engaged in commerce, shipping, finance, and real estate.”

This passage indicates that the rich are only getting richer. Most manufacturers were from old money—this old money financed many of the factories and manufacturing in cities like Chicago and Cleveland. The new elite wanted to be called capitalists, and they had labor disputes with whom they considered labor conflicts.

Wage Earner

The 1860s was a difficult time for labor relations and manufacturing. New York Times felt the need to investigate and survey why trade unions and strikes grew. So these labor conflicts were severe to the wage earners. This was the case of the big fish eating the smaller ones. The more prominent manufacturers took over the smaller companies. The relationship between business and labor was so low that it compared itself to slavery. “The only difference is that there is agriculture  in the field, landed proprietors were the masters and negroes were the slaves; while in the North manufacturers in the field, manufacturing capitalist threatens to become the masters and the white laborers who are to be the slaves.”

The 1860s was a time of flux. The country was changing from an agricultural economy to manufacturing. The gap was slowly closing. It was estimated that 3.7 Americans were agricultural wage earners located chiefly in the South. Industrial manual workers numbered just over 3.5 million employees.

Slavery was known as the free labor system, a polite way to say exploited.  This free labor system was no threat to paid labor in the North.   There was an idea that non-property owners were defined as waged slavery. This idea gained a symbol of widespread respect because it was believed that all wage earners should seek freedom. However, the manufacturers did not treat the workers with dignity, and low wage poor working conditions caused workers to strike.

Conclusion

The chapter entitled “Entrepreneur and Wage Earner ” describes America in 1860 by contrasting manufacturing development and the worker’s plight.  Manufacturing during this time was predominantly in Northern cities. Southern states remained agricultural-based. The South had the advantage of free labor. In the north, manufacturers treated their workers like slaves.  In conclusion, the wealthy received benefits that ordinary people could not get the tax breaks or funding to start companies.  These advantages were unfair and led to resentment by the commoner.