What Is The Difference Between Swift And Vertical Integration

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Industrialization through the late 1800 took the nation by storm, with increases to industry, manufacturing, transportation and banking. These advancements transformed the American way of life and led to establishing the United States as a global commerce player. Many people can clearly see the physical transformation that occurred, but miss the effects that this industrialization had on the business structure. As corporations continued to grow in size, to match the demand, fundamental changes in their structure and the day to day operations were forced to change with it. The concepts of vertical and horizontal integration are two concepts that were implemented to continue the profitability of these corporations. Both of these concepts …show more content…

In 1878 Swift contracted Andrew Chase to design a refrigerated car to ship the meat (Swift & Company). This was a success and opened all parts of the country to distribution, with Swift owning the refrigerator cars, it allowed him to keep costs down (Swift & Company). As the range of his operation grew, Swift established processing plants in Fort Worth, St Louis, St Paul, St Joseph and Omaha and managed the deliveries to the consumer (Swift & Company). All of this fell under his sole company, allowing him direct oversight from the farmer’s field to the end user. Although seemingly beneficial to the consumer, Swift’s use of predatory pricing eliminated any competition to his growing empire (Henretta et al. …show more content…

514). Through predatory pricing he was able to force out any competitor to him and force a merger with them, absorbing their assets into his ever growing corporation, known as horizontal integrations. By 1880, Rockefeller’s Standard Oil controlled 95% of all the refining capabilities in the United States (Henretta et al. 514). With the growing size of his corporation, a newly termed Trust was created, establishing a board to oversee the operations of the far reaching corporation. These Trusts extended control over the entirety of the corporation, throughout the country and were seen as a threat to the government due to their size, influence and power that they were yielding (Henretta et al. 514). Reformers began to step in and attempt to federally regulate these

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