How Did The Gilded Age Affect The Economy

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The Gilded Age served as a critical role in shaping the American economy throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Cities became flooded with immigrants and workers which created a pool of cheap labor. Railroads expanded, connecting the nation’s major cities and generating a nationwide marketplace. During this time, much of the rapid growth that occurred was led by inventions that were created. There was also a few who used this change to their advantage and created business empires. These men controlled the nation and this brought a lot of changes. In the middle of the economy exploding, people saw opportunity in the marketplace. There was new value in delivering a product and services that could be beneficial to people, businesses, and society. The timing of inventions often varied from one industry to another, having a ripple effect on the country. This resulted in a never seen level of productivity across every field of work. Profits for businesses were rising from the continuously increasing levels of production, while older workshops were replaced with assembly lines and factories. …show more content…

For the big businesses to keep doing what they were doing they had to have nothing stand in there way. So they would buy the politics to keep it so that they could keep doing what they were doing. They would add people to their paychecks and it paid out because they would make sure that these big businesses were able to do their business. The United States was changing and it was changing fast. These big business men wanted to stay on top and control the nation and they did. They used their money to get politicians on their side. At one point they even used their money to get a precedent in to office that greatly benefited

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