Gustavus Franklin Swift

Lindsey Baber

 Started

out as his older brother’s helper in a butcher shop at 14  Born June 24, 1839 in West Sandwich, Massachusetts (now Sagamore) in the US

 Started

his own meat business with $20 that his father gave to him  Borrowed $400 from his uncle to expand his business and had enough money by 1859 to have his own butcher shop in Eastham, Massachusetts  Later created a second store in Barnstable  Carefully watched the market value of the cattle he bought

 Meat-packing

industry  Created the refrigerated rail car to transport cheaper meat in a safer environment  His beliefs that cleanliness would avoid spoiled meat and meat loss allowed him to rise to success quicker  Used “vertical integration” for cheaper rates

 His

business centered mostly in Massachusetts, but eventually conquered the British market and went international  One of his cattle-buying partners was suspicious of his idea to transport dressed meat rather than live cattle (because it was cheaper) and left the partnership with a $30,000 buyout  When the railroad companies were against his ideas and raised the rate for transportation of dressed meat, he found a company that never made much profit from cattle-shipping, the Grand Trunk Railway

 Later

became part of the pork and mutton industry  In the early 1900s, his company, Swift and Company was worth $25 million

 Philanthropist

or Captain of Industry because of his smart ideas and great inventions; however he found many loopholes or ways to get around his problems and used “vertical integration” (or cutting out the middle man) to reach his wealthy success, which leads many to believe that he was a robber baron.

This cartoon basically describes how Gustavus Swift created his refrigerated rail cars to have cheaper rates on transportation of his dressed meats. He found that slaughtering cattle in a different location and shipping only the dressed meat would be cheaper than shipping live cattle because it is less freight, meaning less money in rates. Swift was a leading industrialist in the meatpacking industry, as shown in this cartoon.

 "Gustavus

Franklin Swift." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 03 Feb. 2012. .  “Gustavus Franklin Swift.” The Robinson Library. Web. 3 Feb 2012.