Merchants and Manufacturers: Studies in the Changing Structure of Nineteeth Century Marketing

by Glenn Porter, Harold C. Livesay

In its transformation from an agrarian to an industrial economy, the United States saw a fundamental change in the marketing of manufactured goods during the 19th century. Changes in distribution were at least as important as changes in production, as the authors demonstrate in this unique account of the rise of modern marketing. Their focus is on iron, tobacco, railway supplies, and perishable goods, and they show how rising industrial capacity, the concentration of markets, and advancing technology forced new methods of distribution and the decline of independent merchants and wholesalers. By the beginning of the 20th century the outlines of a new economic order had emerged, one in which the modern corporation became the dominant institution. "A splendid study in business history. And it is business history of the best kind, that which relates changes in business organizations and practice to the mainstream of economic development."― Journal of Southern History . "No one before Porter and Livesay has so carefully delineated the transition from the old mercantile to the new industrial world…A good book about an important subject."― Choice .

Genres: American History

257 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Glenn Porter is the Director Emeritus of the Hagley Museum and Library.

Reviews

[Lobstergirl]

Dry, a history in the manner of The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business.

[Steven Shook]

Porter and Livesay provide a detailed outline of the development of market concentration during the 1800s. There general thesis is that the merchant controlled the market for goods and services in the early 1800s, but it was the producer that controlled the markets in the late 1880s. Using the rail, tobacco, iron and steel industries as examples, Porter and Livesay show how markets transformed and how manufacturers began taking on the duty of "financier" of business and industry.

This book is more of a study of macroeconomics than marketing, despite the title of the book. Marketing deals with channels, pricing, product, and promotion, but Porter and Livesay largely focus their study on channels (merchant, wholesaler, manufacturers). Thus, the reader will not learn about factors that led to price dynamics in the 1800s, nor the various forms of promotion that were used to educated and inform consumers about new and existing products and services being offered by both merchants and manufacturers.

The authors' copious use of footnotes will assist those engaged in an in-depth study of macroeconomic changes in the United States during the 1880s. Admittedly, the authors' style of writing is a bit dry at times, but that does not detract from overall quality of the book and the ability of the authors to attain their objective of introducing the reader to market development.

[Tom Darrow]

Required reading for an American Business History class. I got about 1/2 of the way through it and was about to put my head in the oven because it was so dull and dry. Some historians will find value in its painstaking research and detail, but your average reader should avoid this book like tapwater in Mexico.