Great Fortunes from Railroads

The work surveys how vast private fortunes arose from railroad construction and control, contrasting their rapid growth with the slower gains of early manufacturers. It explains how corporations, created by law, concentrated property and authority, enabling control through stock manipulation, strategic takeovers and legalistic tactics. Government actions — land grants, loans, favorable taxation and lax regulation — are shown to have shifted public resources into private hands, while corruption and market rigging displaced builders and small owners. Detailed chapters trace the expansion, transmission, and social consequences of these railroad fortunes and the institutional forces that permitted their rise.