April 12, 2006                                                                                                  link back to syllabus
Office Hours: Tues. 10:30-12:00
                      Wed.  2:00-3:30

History 363: American Business History

I. John Jacob Astor--concluding remarks

    A. Decline of the General Merchant
        1. Specialization and the Growth of the Market
        2. Transportation and Communications Revolutions

    B. Astor, Real Estate and the "Single Tax" on the Value of Unimproved Land

II. 1776: Independence and a New Economic Philosophy

    A. Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

    B. Self-interest and the Public Good: "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest."

    C. The Invisible Hand of the Market: "Every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it....  [B]y  directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention."

    D. Businessmen and Government: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."

III. Constitution as an Engine for Business Growth   The Constitution