"Robber baron" is a derogatory term of social criticism originally applied to
certain wealthy and powerful 19th-century American businessmen. The
term appeared as early as the August 1870 issue of The Atlantic Monthly
magazine. By the late 1800s, the term was typically applied to businessmen who
used exploitative practices to amass their wealth. These practices included
exerting control over natural resources, influencing high levels of government,
paying subsistence wages, squashing competition by acquiring their
competitors to create monopolies and raise prices, and schemes to sell stock
at inflated prices to unsuspecting investors. The term combines the sense
of criminal and illegitimate aristocracy.
We hear now on all sides the term "robber barons" applied to some of the
great capitalists. ... The old robber barons of the Middle Ages who plundered
sword in hand and lance in rest were more honest than this new aristocracy of
swindling millionaires. —Lida F. Baldwin, quoting the August
1870 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, writing in 1907 about how little
business had changed in 35 years. History
The term robber baron derives from the medieval German lords who charged
nominally illegal tolls on the primitive roads crossing their lands or the larger
tolls on ships traversing the Rhine—all such actions without adding anything of
value, but instead lining one's pockets to the detriment of the common good.
U.S. political and economic commentator Matthew Josephson further popularized
the term during the Great Depression in a 1934 book by the same title. He
attributed the phrase to an 1880 anti-monopoly pamphlet about railroad
magnates. Like the German antecedent princes, Josephson alleged that American
big businessmen amassed huge fortunes immorally, unethically, and unjustly.
The theme was popular during the Great Depression amid public scorn for big
business. After the Depression, business
historian, Allan Nevins, challenged this view of American big businessmen by
advocating the "Industrial Statesman" thesis. Nevins, in his John D.
Rockefeller: The Heroic Age of American Enterprise, took on Josephson. He argued
that while Rockefeller may have engaged in some unethical and illegal business
practices, this should not overshadow his bringing order to industrial chaos
of the day. Gilded Age capitalists, according to Nevins, sought to impose
order and stability on competitive business, and that their work made the
United States the foremost economy by the 20th century.
This debate about the morality of certain business practices has
continued, with the term being applied to modern industrialists and media
moguls. In popular culture
In the 1970s the student body of Stanford University voted to use "Robber
Barons" as the nickname for their sports teams. However, school administrators
disallowed it, saying it was disrespectful to the school's founder,
Leland Stanford. No other mascot won acceptance so the teams are known as the
Cardinal. List of businessmen who were labeled as
robber barons The people here are listed in Josephson,
Robber Barons or in the cited source, John Jacob Astor – New York
Andrew Carnegie – Pittsburgh and New York
William A. Clark – Butte, Montana Jay Cooke – Philadelphia
Charles Crocker – California Daniel Drew – New York
James Buchanan Duke – Durham, North Carolina
Marshall Field – Chicago James Fisk – New York
Henry Morrison Flagler – New York and Florida
Henry Clay Frick – Pittsburgh and New York
John Warne Gates – Texas Jay Gould – New York
Edward Henry Harriman – New York Charles T. Hinde - Illinois, Missouri,
Kentucky, California Mark Hopkins – California
Collis Potter Huntington - California Andrew W. Mellon - Pittsburgh
J. P. Morgan – New York John Cleveland Osgood - Colorado
Henry B. Plant – Florida John D. Rockefeller – Cleveland, New
York Charles M. Schwab – Pittsburgh and New
York Joseph Seligman – New York
John D. Spreckels – California Leland Stanford - California
Cornelius Vanderbilt – New York Charles Tyson Yerkes – Chicago
See also Business magnate
Captain of industry References
Further reading Beatty, Jack.. Age of Betrayal: The
Triumph of Money in America, 1865-1900 Vintage Books. ISBN 1400032423
Fraser, Steve.. The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American
Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power Little, Brown and Company. ISBN
0316185434 Josephson, Matthew.. The Robber Barons:
The Great American Capitalists, 1861–1901
White, Richard. Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of
Modern America. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393342376.
Zinn, Howard.. "Chapter 11: Robber Barons and Rebels" from A People's
History of the United States Harper Perennial. ISBN 0060838655
External links The Dark Side of the Gilded Age. The
Atlantic, June 12, 2007 Full Show: The New Robber Barons. Moyers
& Company. December 19, 2014.