Robber Baron (industrialist)

Robber Baron (industrialist)

Robber baron is a derogatory term applied to wealthy and powerful 19th century American businessmen. By the late 1800's, the term was typically applied to businessmen who used what were considered to be exploitative practices to amass their wealth. These practices included exerting control over national resources, accruing high levels of government influence, paying extremely low wages, quashing competition by acquiring competitors in order to create monopolies and eventually raise prices, and schemes to sell stock at inflated prices to unsuspecting investors in a manner which would eventually destroy the company for which the stock was issued and impoverish investors. The term combines the sense of criminal ("robber") and illegitimate aristocracy ("baron").

The term derives from the medieval German lords who charged tolls on ships traversing the Rhine without adding anything of value. (see robber baron). There is dispute over the term's origin and use. U.S. political and economic commentator Matthew Josephson 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 antecedents, 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 historians, led by Allan Nevins, began challenging this view of American big businessmen by advocating the "Industrial Statesman" thesis. Nevins, in his John D. Rockefeller: The Heroic Age of American Enterprise (2 vols., 1940), 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 many modern industrialists and media moguls such as Rupert Murdoch, Donald Trump and powerful rich individuals who hold political office and control media entities, such as Vladimir Putin in Russia and Silvio Berlusconi in Italy referred to as robber barons by their critics.

Read more about Robber Baron (industrialist):  List of Businessmen Who Were Called Robber Barons, In Popular Culture

Famous quotes containing the word baron:

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    Thomas Vaux, 2d Baron Vaux Of Harrowden (1510–1566)