I think you're mostly right; that's when it got really big. But it began long before... Standard Oil, United Fruit Company, JP Morgan, DuPont, CitiBank, Assoc

I think you're mostly right; that's when it got really big. But it began long before... Standard Oil, United Fruit Company, JP Morgan, DuPont, CitiBank, Associated Press, Pfizer, Macy's, and I haven't even gotten to the Civil War era yet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_raider http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies#1825_to_1851 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street#Nineteenth_century