IP

... é preciso dizer que isto desembocou na Primeira Grande Guerra...

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In the Panic of 1893, one of the greatest economic calamities in American History, 500 banks were closed, 15,000 businesses failed, and numerous farms ceased operation. The unemployment rate in Pennsylvania hit 25%, in New York 35%, and in Michigan 43%. Soup kitchens were opened in order to help feed the destitute. Facing starvation, people chopped wood, broke rocks, and sewed in exchange for food. In some cases, women resorted to prostitution to feed their families. This panic also brought an unprecedented wave of mergers as businesses battled fierce price competition and scarce funding. More than 1,800 firms disappeared into consolidations, many of which forming giants that controlled at least 40 percent of their industries and as much as 70 percent. Some of the most famous products of this consolidation were U.S. Steel, DuPont, International Harvester, Pittsburgh Plate Glass, American Can, and American Smelting and Refining:

"Between 1895 and 1904 a great wave of mergers swept through the manufacturing sector. Nothing like it had ever been seen before, or has been seen since. ... The predominant process was horizontal consolidation -- the simultaneous merger of many or all competitors in an industry into a single, giant enterprise.

The Great Merger Movement in American Business, 1895-1904 by Naomi R. Lamoreaux.