How to Make A Monopoly (The 19th Century Way)

welcome to 19th century USA the civil war has come to a close but something new was on the horizon what's that I smell just a hundred years prior the country was fighting for its independence just thirteen simple colonies business too was simpler back then you made stuff you sold stuff that's pretty much it then in the early 1800s these newfangled factories are starting to pop up machines ate man's work interchangeable parts great stuff and you you're just looking to make a quick buck in this land of opportunity well the timing couldn't be better or worse we'll see so you've been in business for a few years now you make Madeline fake trees 100% real wood fake trees decorative and whatnot you sell them to the local townspeople who absolutely adore them everybody wants a fake tree you make lots of money but you know you could have so much more if you could somehow sell your fake trees in another town you could potentially double revenue and why stop there why not the county or the state or the entire country years ago it would be impossible but lucky for you this is a new age the 1800s we have steamboats we have railroads and you have the trees so as you begin to sell your trees in these new markets you find something undesirable competition is afoot other entrepreneurs with other fake foliage threaten your profits yes but worry not you king of capitalism there is a solution by this point you aren't relatively wealthy biggest fake tree salesman around these other guys are just startups trying to take some of your turf so what do you do you offer to buy three different fake tree businesses for a relatively reasonable price first owner agrees happily and you never have to look at him again the second wants more money thinking his business could make him more in the long run the third he refuses on the principle of it business is a bit of a lawless land regulation who needs it yes you could just make better fake trees than the other guys you could but you don't have to so you drop the prices to a single penny perfect tree cost a whole five cents to build a quality fig tree three cents to shipping so you are losing a lot of money but you can afford to lose it all the customers are coming to you and leaving the competition they will go out of business if they drop prices days weeks months go by unable to keep customers in the second business is bankrupt now raise the tree price back to profitability the third tree seller is hung in there I don't know people really like him somehow they're still around and expanding well you got another idea you reach out to another business associate a railroad magnate king of the industry and you ask how about we make a deal for a sizable chunk of money they will agree to ship only your fake trees with that you just limit the competition's ability to ship product nationwide so from here your business is booming your fake tree sales make you a billionaire but that last tree seller they still survive they've been hurt but they're still out there so you make a last-ditch effort to end their run you buy all the forests in their County all the real wood to make the fake trees competition has lost their suppliers after a few weeks they're out of business you my friend control 100% of the market the king of fake trees anyone who tries to compete will be stopped no competition arises and no one even tries so you've raised the price to $3 a tree unheard of yeah sure trees used to be a few cents maybe a dollar for the bust but three that's insane no one can compete though so consumers will still go to you for their fake tree needs this price becomes the new norm thus far things have been going pretty good but a new threat is on the horizon government regulation you are not alone in your capitalist ventures others did the same thing but with other products oil steel non-tree related items but you in your fellow captains of industry have influence on this too the solution is to get someone on the inside a presidential candidate that you're funding his name McKinley his competition is getting those pesky masses to hate the business Kings like yourself well tell your workers if McKinley doesn't win you'll have to fire them and the kidney wins the next four years are pretty good for you guys McKinley keeps them off your back but he's up for re-election and the new political figure is going on about monopolies and what Teddy Roosevelt well by this point in American history the office of Vice President was pretty unimportant he don't really have influence or power he was just kind of there so you and your fellow entrepreneurs decide to put Teddy into that position vice president under McKinley here he can't really do anything don't pass laws prosecution campaigning fading away into the background but McKinley gets shot some angry worker frustrated at the system kills him guess who's President Roosevelt is an issue when a police have been illegal for the most part for a while but money and influence has kept you afloat now Roosevelt is taking you to court you sit there and you listen to them go on about anti-consumer acts and huge profits blah blah blah you know how it's gonna end they dissolve your empire now split into dozens of companies as outlandish 'as all the sounds it really defined business in the Gilded Age this was typical so in the end was it all bad no while competition and innovation may have been greatly limited working conditions pretty abysmal and the quality of life just bad it still built the nation the steel went to skyscrapers built infrastructure and in the end we got rules for the economy but was it all worth it I don't know I'll let you decide this is Tyler of Knowledge Hub [Music]

Channel: KnowledgeHub

Views: 383,087

Rating: 4.9254775 out of 5

Keywords: Monopoly, KnowledgeHub, KnowledgeHub monopoly, gilded age, capitalism, capitalism monopoly, modern monopoly, monopoly game, rockefeller, 19th century monopoly, gilded age monopoly, industrial revolution, knowledgehub capitalism, Alternatehistoryhub, history

Id: WL_nrwVSi4s

Length: 5min 57sec (357 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 15 2018