Merchants and Manufacturers: Studies in the Changing Structure of Nineteenth-Century Marketing (review)

356civil war history other's excellent work? We need new questions to help us out of the impasse. The only justification for asking Professor Formisano to write a different book is that The Birth of Mass Political Parties is such a good, rich, and thoughtful contribution that he might be just the man to write the needed synthesis. David P. Thelen University of Missouri, Columbia Merchants and Manufacturers: Studies in the Changing Structure of Nineteenth-Century Marketing. By Glenn Porter and Harold C. Livesay . (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1971. Pp. x, 257. $11.50.) This study seeks to explain why the system used to distribute goods in ante-bellum United States radically changed with the coming of industrialization after the Civil War. The authors have wisely not attempted a comprehensive study of the nineteenth-century "distribution system," but instead have concentrated on the "firms and industries that best illustrate prevailing distribution methods and best explain the causes and direction of change. . . ." In ante-bellum America most manufactured goods were distributed throughout the nation by a network of independent wholesalers. The reasons for this system rested with the nature of the market and of most goods sold. The markets were widely scattered, and customers usually purchased in small quantities. Moreover, most goods were "generic" (that is, standard goods whose function could be explained by almost anyone). This situation not only made it possible, but financially advantageous for manufacturers to have independent wholesalers serve as intermediaries in the marketing of their products. The wholesaler also played another important role in ante-bellum America, serving as a catalyst for economic growth by furnishing the manufacturer with capital and financial expertise. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century the independent wholesaler 's position as mover and shaker in the economy came to a close. The Civil War played a part in this decline. Not only did the war provide greater earnings for manufacturers, but government "finance and purchasing effected the first significant transfer of capital from the general public into the manufacturing sector." This latter development in turn encouraged the growth of private banks catering to the needs of manufacturers. Changes in the Civil War period thus had the effect of drastically limiting the wholesaler's importance to the manufacturer as a source of capital and financial expertise. However, the most important reasons for the decline of the wholesaler can be traced to the changing structure of the market and the introduction of new products. After the Civil War the structure of the market changed in two important ways. First, the creation of the large BOOK REVIEWS 357 firm and oligopolistic conditions in a number of industries reduced the number of buyers for certain products in producers' goods. This concentrated market also emerged in a number of consumers' goods industries with the increasing urbanization of the country. The concentrated nature of the market made it profitable for many manufacturers to wholesale, or even retail, their own products. Moreover, after the Civil War, a number of new products were offered to the public that were either perishable or technologically complex. These products required special handling or servicing that the network of wholesale merchants were unable to offer, forcing a number of manufacturers to market their own products. These changes did not occur in all sectors of the economy. In industries where the nature of the product remained relatively standard, and the markets diffuse (groceries, drugs, hardware, jewelry, liquor, and dry goods), the independent wholesaler continued to play an important role. Even in this area, however, the growing predominance of brand names and national advertising limited the wholesaler's role; he was no longer called upon to sell goods, merely to distribute them. This is a clearly written and well formulated study, grounded in research in the records of a number of nineteenth-century merchant and manufacturing firms. It is a valuable contribution to a little explored facet of nineteenth-century history. Erling A. Erickson University of the Pacific The Collapse of Orthodoxy: The Intellectual Ordeal of George Frederick Holmes. By Neal C. Gillespie. (Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 1972. Pp. x, 273. $9.50.) A biography of a disagreeable personality makes depressing...