ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by consolidation,

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the transition of a company from its free-form

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early stages into a solid corporate entity.

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All right, what made it possible for businesses

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to consolidate and grow in the way that the image represents?

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And here are your potential answers.

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With technology booming in the post-Civil War era,

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tycoons like John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil

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made big gains in newly emerging markets,

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building monopolies like the one detailed in the image.

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Let's see which answer describes what led to these conditions

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fit for a king of industry.

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Was a major factor allowing these businesses to consolidate and grow

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A - a decrease in immigration?

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Actually, rising levels of immigration were

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hugely important to the success of these companies

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as they provided a cheap source of labor in this period of expansion.

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So it's not A.

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Did these businesses expand so aggressively

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because of the C - development of foreign markets?

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Though foreign markets were developing at the time,

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Rockefeller and friends were doing pretty well within the United States,

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particularly because of the government's

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lack of regulatory legislation.

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So that eliminates C and D.

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Which means that the biggest factor allowing these tycoons

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to consolidate their businesses was B -

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laissez-faire government policies.

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Someone probably should've been keeping watch

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over Rockefeller and the other tycoons on their road

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to monopolies, but strict regulation of business

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wasn't the name of the game during this period.

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So B is the right answer.

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A few decades later, government regulation did

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catch up to these corporations, busting trusts

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and guts alike.

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[ wind whistles ]

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