Last updated 10th July 2024: Online ordering is currently unavailable due to technical issues. We apologise for any delays responding to customers while we resolve this. For further updates please visit our website https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/technical-incident
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2011
The flurry of British investment in American manufacturing industry from 1887 to 1891 was viewed with alarm, particularly in the West. At this time the farmer was preoccupied with the economic power of monopolistic industries and trusts, and so die British investor became deeply involved in this phase of the agrarian battle. In the past, capital from die United Kingdom had entered industrial concerns, chiefly railroads, without wresting the management out of American hands. More recently British investors had been building up and controlling dieir own enterprises in the West. Now, well-established and profitable American businesses were bought and directed from Britain. The farmer regarded this unaccustomed interest in American industrials either as a step toward die formation of great monopolies, or, even worse, as part of an imperialistic design conceived by London bankers to enslave the American people.
1 Jenks, Leland H., “Britain and American Railway Development,” The Journal of Economic History, XI (Fall 1951), 378–81.Google Scholar
2 Exports of capital from 1886 to 1890 were exceptionally high. Feis, Herbert, Europe the World's Banker, 1870-1914 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1930), p. 11;Google ScholarRostow, W. W., British Economy of the Nineteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1948), pp. 59, 77, 85–86Google Scholar.
3 The Statist, XXIII (06 I, 1889), 635; XXIV (September 28, 1889), 356. There were earlier instances, but the American breweries on the English market whetted investors' appetites.Google ScholarClapham, J. H., An Economic History of Modern Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1938), III, 210, 218Google Scholar.
4 Clark, Victor S., History of Manufactures in the United States (New York: Peter Smith, 1949), II, 167–68;Google ScholarThe Economist, XLVII (06 29, 1889), 828; XLVII (July 27, 1889), 965; XLVIII (January 18, 1890), 67Google Scholar.
5 The Economist, XLVII (06 29, 1889), 829;Google ScholarThe Statist, XXIV (12 14, 1889), 684Google ScholarThe Bankers' Magazine (New York), XLV (08 1890), 88Google Scholar.
6 Iowa Tribune (Des Moines), February 20, 1889. A syndicate in America with a capital of $100 million was reported in The Statist, XXIV (08 31, 1889), 237; but the published authorized capital of several financial trusts was much less, and the subscribed capital even smaller.—Google ScholarThe Statist, XXIV (11 23, 1889), 595. The word “syndicate” possessed a peculiarly sinister meaning for Western editors, and was applied particularly to British firmsGoogle Scholar.
7 Girard Herald (Kansas), August 3, 1889; Field and Farm (Denver), July 27, 1889. A reputable paper put the subscriptions at under $15 million.— The Statist, XXIV (09 18, 1889), 356Google Scholar.
8 Handbook, of Facts and Alliance Information (Library of National Economist Extras, Vol. I, No. 1) (Washington, 1890), 65. SeeGoogle ScholarPaish, G., “Great Britain's Capital Investments in Individual Colonial and Foreign Countries,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, LXXIV (1911), 176Google Scholar.
9 Western Herald (Kansas), 06 27, 1891. “Now an English syndicate has been formed to buy up all the ballet girls. Lovers of antiques will kick. So will the girls.”—Google ScholarField and Farm, 08 3, 1889Google Scholar.
10 ??? (Seotember 28, 1889), 356; (November 23, 1889), 595.
11 The vendors and American investors might retain a considerable portion of the stock.— The Bankers' Magazine, XLV (08 1890), 88Google Scholar.
12 The Portland Weekly Oregonian, 08 23, 1889;Google ScholarThe Statist. XXIV (08 31, 1889), 237Google Scholar.
13 Kuhlmann, Charles B., Development of the Flour Milling Industry of the United States (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1929), p. 134;Google ScholarDictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934), XIV, 605Google Scholar.
14 Arnold, John P. and Penman, Frank, History of the Brewing Industry and Science in America (Chicago: G. L. Peterson, 1933), p. 79. The chief attraction of the St. Louis Breweries, Ltd., was its union of 18 formerly independent breweries.—Google ScholarThe Statist, XXIV (12 14, 1889), 683–84.Google Scholar
15 The Economist. XlV (03 23, 1887), 366.Google Scholar
16 The Economist, XLVII (07 27, 1889), 965.Google Scholar
17 “Your ‘free’ citizens are fast becoming the bond slaves of rich men in London. What would Washington have thought of this kind of ‘independence’?” — W. Clarke to H. D. Lloyd, June 28, 1890, H. D. Lloyd Papers (Wisconsin State Historical Society).
18 The Statist, XXIV (09 28, 1889), 356.Google Scholar
19 Wiman, Erastus, “British Capital and American Industries,” North American Review, CL (1890), 226.Google Scholar
20 Congressional Record, XV (06 3, 1884), 4770, 4778, 4781. This debate was on the unauthorized fencing of the public domain.Google Scholar
21 Cresco Plain Dealer, An appeal and address to the Fourth Congressional District of Iowa, October 1884.
22 Clements, Roger V., “British-Controlled Enterprise in the West between 1870 and 1900, and Some Agrarian Reactions,” Agricultural History, XXVII (10 1953), 137–41.Google Scholar
23 Cotner, Robert C., ed., Addresses and State Papers of James Stephen Hogg (Austin: University of Texas, 1951), p. 59.Google Scholar
24 Form of charter for Union Labor Clubs in Papers, L. H. Weller (Wisconsin State Historical Society) under date September 10, 1888;Google ScholarHaynes, Fred E., James B. Weaver (Iowa City: State Historical Society, 1919), p. 333;Google ScholarGirard Herald, 09 10, 1889Google Scholar.
25 Girard Herald, January 26, June 22, 1889.Google Scholar …“a great proportion of our manufacturing is done with English money, and its profits go to England. A great bulk of the stock of our mines and ironworks is held in England, and the profits go into foreign pockets. … Interest, earnings, rents, and profits are the shackles Americans have to fear; they are the modern development of the gives, the manacles, and the clanking chain.”— The National Economist, I (07 6, 1889), 248. “England, not satisfied with investment in the United States, has a flourishing slave trade in Zanzibar.… They seem to be having a corner on slavery in general.”—Google ScholarGirard Herald, 11 9, 1889. See alsoGoogle ScholarWestern Herald, 03 24, 1893Google Scholar.
26 Congressional Record, XXI (04 16, 1890), 3439, 3441-42.Google Scholar
27 Iowa Tribune, 01 29, 1890;Google ScholarGirard Herald. 01 26, 1889;Google ScholarWestern Herald, 07 26, 1890Google Scholar.
28 Congressional Record, XXI (04 16, 1890), 3439, 3441-42.Google Scholar
29 , Kuhlmann, Flour Milling Industry, pp. 135, 147.Google ScholarGirard Herald, 08 3, 1889. A report from Salt Lake City later told of British plans to take over all flour mills in Utah and southern Idaho at a cost of (2 million. “…it is proposed to monopolise the production of flour in this inter-mountain country.”— The United States Miller (Milwaukee); January 1892Google Scholar.
30 Field and Farm, 11 7, 1889. This paper was usually relatively friendly to Britain and British ways.Google Scholar
31 The National Economist, I (05 11, 1889), 127; (June 29, 1889), 229; Handbook of Facts and Alliance Information, p. 65.Google Scholar
32 St. Paul Globe, 06 2, 1890;Google ScholarWestern Herald, 01 16, 1892;Google ScholarCongressional Record, XXI (02 7, 1890), p. 1135;Google ScholarGirard Herald, 06 22, 1889. “…there are enough Americans to own America and enough American capital to develop American industries, and …while we have a flag emblazoning in the fullest sense the principle of ‘Liberty’ our flag and the country it floats over are good enough for Americans, and for American capital and … Americans propose to hold this country.”—Google ScholarCongressional Record, XXI (04 16, 1890), 3442–43Google Scholar.
33 Western Herald, 05 5, July 7, 1893. A recent estimate puts the British investment in the United States at $1,500 million in 1885 and at $2,625 million in 1899. If the yield was 5 !4 per cent, it would approximate $83 million and $144 million in these respective years.—Google ScholarCairncross, A. K., Home and Foreign Investment, 1870-1913 (Cambridge: The University Press, 1953). PP. 183, 185Google Scholar.
34 Harvey, W. H., Coin's Financial School (Chicago: Coin Publishing Company, 1894), pp. 11, 89;Google ScholarDonnelly, Ignatius, The American People's Money (Chicago: Laird and Lee, 1895), pp. 136, 163Google Scholar.
35 Rocky Mountain News, 10 15, November 9, 1896.Google Scholar
36 The Statutes at Large of the United States of America, XXIX, 618-19. Congressional Record, XXIX (12 10, 1896), 77–81; (January 11 and 12, 1897), 702, 725Google Scholar.
37 Industrial Commission Reports, 1900-1902, Trusts and Industrial Combinations; Second Report (57th Cong., ist Sess., House Doc. No. 182), XIII, 354-63; The Economist, LXVII (12 19, 1908), 1170–71;Google ScholarThe Bankers' Magazine, XLV (12 1890), 411Google Scholar.
38 The Statist, XXII (06 28, 1888), 101;Google ScholarThe Bankers' Magazine, XLIV (08, 1889), 85; Dictionary of American Biography, XIV, 605;Google Scholar, Kuhlmann, Flour Milling Industry, p. 171Google Scholar.
39 The Statist, XXIII (06 29, 1889), 749; XXVI (September 20, 1890), 333-34;Google ScholarThe Economist, LII (03 3, 1894), 391; (July 28, 1894), 919Google Scholar.
40 , Kuhlmann, Flour Milling Industry, pp. 135–36.Google Scholar
41 See cartoon in Faulkner, H. U., The Quest for Social Justice (New York: Macmillan, 1931), Facing page 36;Google ScholarPelling, H. M., The Origins of the Labour Party (London: Macmillan, 1954), pp. 79, 81, 207–9Google Scholar.
