Economy of Chicago
Encyclopedia
Chicago
is home to 12 Fortune 500
companies and has the third largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—approximately US$532 billion in 2010. The city has grown to become a major financial
, transportation and distribution
center. Manufacturing
, printing
and publishing
, and food processing
also play major roles in the city
's economy. It is the largest city on the Great Lakes.
area has experienced a resurgence in recent years with construction of major new condominium
and Class A office buildings. These include the 92-story Trump Tower Chicago
, Lakeshore East development, and the 300 North Lasalle office building. Since the recession, other projects, like the planned 150-story 2000 foot Chicago Spire by architect Santiago Calatrava
, are now in limbo. Many city neighborhoods are gentrifying at a rapid pace as well, including Logan Square, Pilsen, Uptown, Near Southside, and Rogers Park. The massive expansion of O'Hare International Airport
and reconstruction of the Dan Ryan Expressway are also underway and will shape development patterns for years to come.
The city houses one of the Federal Reserve Bank
s, established in 1914. There is also the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. The largest banks in the Chicago region (by % of deposits) are: JPMorgan Chase, LaSalle Bank
(a Bank of America
subsidiary), Hannah Thornsburg (a BMO
subsidiary), and Northern Trust. The largest banks headquartered in Chicago are: Northern Trust
, Harris Bank
, Corus Bank
, Wintrust Financial, and First Midwest Bank
. Many financial institutions are in the Loop
.
Chicago has three major financial exchanges, including the Chicago Stock Exchange
, the Chicago Board Options Exchange
(CBOE), and the CME Group
(Merc). While the city of Chicago houses most of the major brokerage firms, many insurance companies are in the city or suburbs, such as Allstate Corporation
.
in 1833, the primary industry
was fur
trading. In the 1770s, Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, the area's first resident and Haitian
-born fur trader, established a fur trading post in the area which later became known as Fort Dearborn
, along the bank of the Chicago River
, where he traded until relocating again in 1800.
The American Fur Company
, established in 1808 by John Jacob Astor
to compete with the powerful Canadian North West
and Hudson Bay
companies, practically took control of the fur trade in the United States
following the War of 1812
. It quickly became known for its ruthless practice of buying out or destroying the competition, as most private traders in Chicago
soon found out. It appointed John Kinzie
and Antoine Deschamps
as its first agents in northern Illinois
, and they reported to the company's headquarters on Mackinac Island
. Their field of operations covered North northeastern Illinois and the Illinois River
. In 1819, Charles H. Beaubien was brought in to assist Kinzie
and eventually became head of the outfit. Gurdon S. Hubbard
replaced Deschamps
in 1823 but soon went on his own by purchasing all interests of the company in Illinois
.
Astor formed an alliance with the Chouteau
family in St. Louis in 1822. By extending the trade of his company to the Missouri River
region and eventually all the way into the Rocky Mountains
, he consolidated commercial connections between St. Louis, Chicago
, and Mackinac
. By the mid-1820s, Astor's American Fur Company
dominated the economy
of Chicago
and, in consequence, its social life as well.
The opening of the Erie Canal
in 1825 enabled Easterners to migrate in increasingly large numbers to the lands west of Lake Michigan
. White settlements limited the supply of game for the Indian, who could no longer afford to pay their debts to the American Fur Company. By 1828, when Hubbard took over the business of the company in Illinois
, the fur trade at Chicago
was measured in hundreds instead of thousands of dollar
s. The Treaty of 1833, which extinguished all Indian land claims in Illinois
, marked the end of the fur trade as a significant part of the Chicago economy. Diminishing profits convinced Astor in 1834 to sell his interest in the American Fur Company
, which reorganized under Ramsay Crooks
and moved its operations to the Far West
. Fur
trading disappeared from Chicago
as the population boomed and land speculation became the rage.
During the 1850s and 1860s, Chicago's pork
and beef
industry expanded. Entrepreneurs such as Gustavus Swift
and Philip Armour
helped the area to become the largest producer of meat products in the world. By 1862 Chicago had displaced Cincinnati, Ohio
, as "Porkopolis".
Two major influences for the growth of Chicago's meat industries
during the 1860s were: the Civil War
increased the demand for food products and Chicago's vast transportation system ensured that goods could be delivered to soldiers quickly all over the northern United States
. The second factor was the utilization of ice in meat packing plants. Beforehand, meat production and distribution facilities, known as disassembly plants, had to shut down in the hot summer months. Increased operating months created new man-hours in which people could work. The efficiency of Chicago's meat packing industry
and its disassembly plants inspired others like Henry Ford
when he developed Model-Ts assembly lines.
In the 1860s, Chicago's pork
and beef
industry represented the first global industry. As the major meat companies grew in Chicago many, like Armour
, created global companies and communicated with divisions spread across the globe via telegraph. Chicago industries became highly diversified during the nineteenth century.
Chicago has produced many of the foremost industrialists, corporate lawyers, merchants, and financiers in United States history.
Among the foremost of the Chicago industrialists, lawyers, financiers, and merchants were John Villiers Farwell, Potter Palmer
, George Pullman
, Charles Gray
, Marshall Field
, Richard Teller Crane, Martin Ryerson, John Jacob Glessner, Jacob Bunn, John Whitfield Bunn, John Graves Shedd, Cyrus Hall McCormick, Edward Avery Shedd, Charles Banks Shedd, Leander McCormick, Stanley Field, Charles Deering
, James Deering
, Robert Law
, Francis Peabody, Leonard Richardson, Milo Barnum Richardson
, Joseph Edward Otis, Frank Hatch Jones, Arthur Jerome Eddy
, Arthur J. Caton, Nathaniel Kellogg Fairbank, Ezra Butler McCagg, Julius Rosenwald
, Morris Selz, Harry Selz, William McCormick Blair, William Douglas Richardson, Charles Farwell, James Monroe Stryker and John Stryker of the Bunn-Richardson-Stryker-Taylor family (See: John Whitfield Bunn and Jacob Bunn), Samuel Insull
, Max Adler, Lucius Fisher, Lucius Teeter, John Peter Altgeld
, Walter Gurnee, Philip Danforth Armour
, Gustavus Franklin Swift
, Michael Morris
, Jacob Best
, Jonathan Y. Scammon, and many others.
Late in the 19th Century, Chicago was part of the bicycle
craze, as home to Western Wheel Company, which introduced stamping to the production process and significantly reduced costs, while early in the 20th Century, the city was part of the automobile
revolution, hosting the brass era car builder Bugmobile, which was founded there in 1907.
It was also home to Grigsby-Grunow, which manufactured radio
s under the Majestic brand until the company failed in 1934. (Majestic Radio and Television Corporation preserved the Majestic name, while General Household Utilities kept Grunow alive.) Chicago also hosted E. H. Scott's Scott Transformer Company, which introduced a high-grade radio in 1928, and grew into Scott Radio Laboratories; this was located at 4450 Ravenswood Avenue in 1946, and produced "very expensive, beautifully-designed, chrome-plated chassis". It added "a line of high-quality television sets in 1949". Other entrant in this business were Zenith
, which started life there in 1918, entering auto radios in the 1930s, and Galvin Manufacturing Corporation, which started manufacturing power supplies in 1928 and went on to automobile radios under the Motorola
marque in 1930, as well as Walkie-talkie
and Handie-Talkie
and for the Army.
Modern-day futures and commodity trading markets were pioneered in Chicago. A number of events led to this, along with Chicago's transportation systems and geographic proximity to the rest of the country. Massive amounts of goods passed through Chicago from places in the Mississippi Valley such as St. Louis, Missouri
. Grain was stored in Chicago, and people began buying contracts on it. Later, people as far away as New York City
began buying contracts by telegraph on the goods that would be stored in Chicago in the future. From this were established the Chicago Board of Trade
(CBOT), the Chicago Mercantile Exchange
(CME), and the modern systems in use today for futures and commodity trading.
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
is home to 12 Fortune 500
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
companies and has the third largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—approximately US$532 billion in 2010. The city has grown to become a major financial
FINANCIAL
FINANCIAL is the weekly English-language newspaper with offices in Tbilisi, Georgia and Kiev, Ukraine. Published by Intelligence Group LLC, FINANCIAL is focused on opinion leaders and top business decision-makers; It's about world’s largest companies, investing, careers, and small business. It is...
, transportation and distribution
Distribution (economics)
Distribution in economics refers to the way total output, income, or wealth is distributed among individuals or among the factors of production .. In general theory and the national income and product accounts, each unit of output corresponds to a unit of income...
center. Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
, printing
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
and publishing
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
, and food processing
Food processing
Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms for consumption by humans or animals either in the home or by the food processing industry...
also play major roles in the city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
's economy. It is the largest city on the Great Lakes.
Real estate and corporate location
The central downtownDowntown
Downtown is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's core or central business district ....
area has experienced a resurgence in recent years with construction of major new condominium
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
and Class A office buildings. These include the 92-story Trump Tower Chicago
Trump International Hotel and Tower (Chicago)
The Trump International Hotel and Tower, also known as Trump Tower Chicago and locally as the Trump Tower, is a skyscraper condo-hotel in downtown Chicago, Illinois. The building, named after real estate developer Donald Trump, was designed by architect Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill...
, Lakeshore East development, and the 300 North Lasalle office building. Since the recession, other projects, like the planned 150-story 2000 foot Chicago Spire by architect Santiago Calatrava
Santiago Calatrava
Santiago Calatrava Valls is a Spanish architect, sculptor and structural engineer whose principal office is in Zürich, Switzerland. Classed now among the elite designers of the world, he has offices in Zürich, Paris, Valencia, and New York City....
, are now in limbo. Many city neighborhoods are gentrifying at a rapid pace as well, including Logan Square, Pilsen, Uptown, Near Southside, and Rogers Park. The massive expansion of O'Hare International Airport
O'Hare International Airport
Chicago O'Hare International Airport , also known as O'Hare Airport, O'Hare Field, Chicago Airport, Chicago International Airport, or simply O'Hare, is a major airport located in the northwestern-most corner of Chicago, Illinois, United States, northwest of the Chicago Loop...
and reconstruction of the Dan Ryan Expressway are also underway and will shape development patterns for years to come.
Finance
Federal Reserve Bank
The twelve Federal Reserve Banks form a major part of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. The twelve federal reserve banks together divide the nation into twelve Federal Reserve Districts, the twelve banking districts created by the Federal Reserve Act of...
s, established in 1914. There is also the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. The largest banks in the Chicago region (by % of deposits) are: JPMorgan Chase, LaSalle Bank
LaSalle Bank
LaSalle Bank Corporation was the holding company for LaSalle Bank N.A. and LaSalle Bank Midwest N.A. . With $116 billion in assets, it was headquartered at 135 South LaSalle Street in Chicago, Illinois...
(a Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
subsidiary), Hannah Thornsburg (a BMO
Bank of Montreal
The Bank of Montreal , , or BMO Financial Group, is the fourth largest bank in Canada by deposits. The Bank of Montreal was founded on June 23, 1817 by John Richardson and eight merchants in a rented house in Montreal, Quebec. On May 19, 1817 the Articles of Association were adopted, making it...
subsidiary), and Northern Trust. The largest banks headquartered in Chicago are: Northern Trust
Northern Trust
Northern Trust Corporation is an international financial services company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It provides investment management, asset and fund administration, fiduciary and banking services through a network of 85 offices in 18 U.S. states and 12 international offices in North...
, Harris Bank
Harris Bank
BMO Harris Bank is a subsidiary of Montreal-based Canadian bank Bank of Montreal. Today the bank holding company is formally named BMO Bankcorp, Inc....
, Corus Bank
Corus Bankshares
Corus Bankshares, Inc. operated as the holding company for Corus Bank, N.A., a United States company that offered consumer and corporate banking products and services. The bank's deposit products included checking, savings, money market, and time deposit accounts...
, Wintrust Financial, and First Midwest Bank
First Midwest Bank
First Midwest Bank, the main banking subsidiary of First Midwest Bancorp, Inc., a publicly-held company, began in Joliet, Illinois. From there they grew to serve many Chicago suburbs, downstate Illinois and the Quad Cities area...
. Many financial institutions are in the Loop
Chicago Loop
The Loop or Chicago Loop is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas located in the City of Chicago, Illinois. It is the historic commercial center of downtown Chicago...
.
Chicago has three major financial exchanges, including the Chicago Stock Exchange
Chicago Stock Exchange
The Chicago Stock Exchange is a stock exchange in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The exchange is a national securities exchange and self-regulated organization, which operates under the oversight of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . The Chicago Stock Exchange is the third most active stock...
, the Chicago Board Options Exchange
Chicago Board Options Exchange
The Chicago Board Options Exchange , located at 400 South LaSalle Street in Chicago, is the largest U.S. options exchange with annual trading volume that hovered around one billion contracts at the end of 2007...
(CBOE), and the CME Group
CME Group
The CME Group bases prices for US gasoline on Brent Crude rather than West Texas Intermediate Crude , which many believe is responsible for artificially high gas prices for US consumers...
(Merc). While the city of Chicago houses most of the major brokerage firms, many insurance companies are in the city or suburbs, such as Allstate Corporation
Allstate
The Allstate Corporation is the second-largest personal lines insurer in the United States and the largest that is publicly held. The company also has personal lines insurance operations in Canada. Allstate was founded in 1931 as part of Sears, Roebuck and Co., and was spun off in 1993...
.
Historic highlights
Before it was incorporated as a townTown
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
in 1833, the primary industry
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
was fur
Fur
Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal...
trading. In the 1770s, Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, the area's first resident and Haitian
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
-born fur trader, established a fur trading post in the area which later became known as Fort Dearborn
Fort Dearborn
Fort Dearborn was a United States fort built in 1803 beside the Chicago River in what is now Chicago, Illinois. It was constructed by troops under Captain John Whistler and named in honor of Henry Dearborn, then United States Secretary of War. The original fort was destroyed following the Battle of...
, along the bank of the Chicago River
Chicago River
The Chicago River is a system of rivers and canals with a combined length of that runs through the city of the same name, including its center . Though not especially long, the river is notable for being the reason why Chicago became an important location, as the link between the Great Lakes and...
, where he traded until relocating again in 1800.
The American Fur Company
American Fur Company
The American Fur Company was founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808. The company grew to monopolize the fur trade in the United States by 1830, and became one of the largest businesses in the country. The company was one the first great trusts in American business...
, established in 1808 by John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor , born Johann Jakob Astor, was a German-American business magnate and investor who was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States...
to compete with the powerful Canadian North West
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...
and Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay , sometimes called Hudson's Bay, is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area, about , that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota,...
companies, practically took control of the fur trade in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
following the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
. It quickly became known for its ruthless practice of buying out or destroying the competition, as most private traders in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
soon found out. It appointed John Kinzie
John Kinzie
John Kinzie was one of Chicago's first permanent European settlers. Kinzie Street in Chicago is named after him.-Early life:...
and Antoine Deschamps
Deschamps
Deschamps is a common family name of French origin, which means "from the fields", from the French word champ = "field".*Didier Deschamps , football player and manager*Émile Deschamps , French poet...
as its first agents in northern Illinois
Northern Illinois
Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois.-Economics:Northern Illinois is dominated by the metropolitan areas of Chicago, Rockford, and the Quad Cities, which contain a majority of Illinois' population and economic activity, including...
, and they reported to the company's headquarters on Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island is an island and resort area covering in land area, part of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was home to a Native American settlement before European...
. Their field of operations covered North northeastern Illinois and the Illinois River
Illinois River
The Illinois River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately long, in the State of Illinois. The river drains a large section of central Illinois, with a drainage basin of . This river was important among Native Americans and early French traders as the principal water route...
. In 1819, Charles H. Beaubien was brought in to assist Kinzie
John Kinzie
John Kinzie was one of Chicago's first permanent European settlers. Kinzie Street in Chicago is named after him.-Early life:...
and eventually became head of the outfit. Gurdon S. Hubbard
Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard
Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard was an American fur trader, insurance underwriter and land speculator. Hubbard first arrived in Chicago on October 1, 1818 as a voyageur...
replaced Deschamps
Deschamps
Deschamps is a common family name of French origin, which means "from the fields", from the French word champ = "field".*Didier Deschamps , football player and manager*Émile Deschamps , French poet...
in 1823 but soon went on his own by purchasing all interests of the company in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
.
Astor formed an alliance with the Chouteau
Chouteau
Chouteau was the name of a highly successful French fur-trading family based in St. Louis, Missouri, members of which established posts in the Midwest and Western United States...
family in St. Louis in 1822. By extending the trade of his company to the Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
region and eventually all the way into the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
, he consolidated commercial connections between St. Louis, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and Mackinac
Mackinac
-Geography:* Mackinaw River, a tributary of the Illinois River* Straits of Mackinac, connecting the lakes and separates the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan* Mackinac Island, an island in the straits...
. By the mid-1820s, Astor's American Fur Company
American Fur Company
The American Fur Company was founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808. The company grew to monopolize the fur trade in the United States by 1830, and became one of the largest businesses in the country. The company was one the first great trusts in American business...
dominated the economy
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and, in consequence, its social life as well.
The opening of the Erie Canal
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...
in 1825 enabled Easterners to migrate in increasingly large numbers to the lands west of Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
. White settlements limited the supply of game for the Indian, who could no longer afford to pay their debts to the American Fur Company. By 1828, when Hubbard took over the business of the company in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, the fur trade at Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
was measured in hundreds instead of thousands of dollar
Dollar
The dollar is the name of the official currency of many countries, including Australia, Belize, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States.-Etymology:...
s. The Treaty of 1833, which extinguished all Indian land claims in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, marked the end of the fur trade as a significant part of the Chicago economy. Diminishing profits convinced Astor in 1834 to sell his interest in the American Fur Company
American Fur Company
The American Fur Company was founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808. The company grew to monopolize the fur trade in the United States by 1830, and became one of the largest businesses in the country. The company was one the first great trusts in American business...
, which reorganized under Ramsay Crooks
Ramsay Crooks
Ramsay Crooks immigrated to Canada from Scotland in 1803 and he worked in a trading post on the Great Lakes. He helped W. Price Hunt to organize and lead an overland trip to Astoria in the Oregon Country for John Jacob Astor in 1809 through 1813, as a partner in the Pacific Fur Company...
and moved its operations to the Far West
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
. Fur
Fur
Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal...
trading disappeared from Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
as the population boomed and land speculation became the rage.
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
and beef
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
industry expanded. Entrepreneurs such as Gustavus Swift
Gustavus Franklin Swift
Gustavus Franklin Swift founded a meat-packing empire in the Midwest during the late 19th century, over which he presided until his death...
and Philip Armour
Philip Danforth Armour
Philip Danforth Armour, Sr. was an American businessman who founded Armour and Company, an American meatpacking firm.-Biography:...
helped the area to become the largest producer of meat products in the world. By 1862 Chicago had displaced Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
, as "Porkopolis".
Two major influences for the growth of Chicago's meat industries
Meat packing industry
The meat packing industry handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock...
during the 1860s were: the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
increased the demand for food products and Chicago's vast transportation system ensured that goods could be delivered to soldiers quickly all over the northern United States
Northern United States
Northern United States, also sometimes the North, may refer to:* A particular grouping of states or regions of the United States of America. The United States Census Bureau divides some of the northernmost United States into the Midwest Region and the Northeast Region...
. The second factor was the utilization of ice in meat packing plants. Beforehand, meat production and distribution facilities, known as disassembly plants, had to shut down in the hot summer months. Increased operating months created new man-hours in which people could work. The efficiency of Chicago's meat packing industry
Meat packing industry
The meat packing industry handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock...
and its disassembly plants inspired others like Henry Ford
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...
when he developed Model-Ts assembly lines.
In the 1860s, Chicago's pork
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
and beef
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
industry represented the first global industry. As the major meat companies grew in Chicago many, like Armour
Armour and Company
Armour & Company was an American slaughterhouse and meatpacking company founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1867 by the Armour brothers, led by Philip Danforth Armour. By 1880, the company was Chicago's most important business and helped make the city and its Union Stock Yards the center of the...
, created global companies and communicated with divisions spread across the globe via telegraph. Chicago industries became highly diversified during the nineteenth century.
Chicago has produced many of the foremost industrialists, corporate lawyers, merchants, and financiers in United States history.
Among the foremost of the Chicago industrialists, lawyers, financiers, and merchants were John Villiers Farwell, Potter Palmer
Potter Palmer
Potter Palmer was an American businessman who was responsible for much of the development of State Street in Chicago.-Retailing career:...
, George Pullman
George Pullman
George Mortimer Pullman was an American inventor and industrialist. He is known as the inventor of the Pullman sleeping car, and for violently suppressing striking workers in the company town he created, Pullman .-Background:Born in Brocton, New York, his family moved to Albion,...
, Charles Gray
Charles McNeill Gray
Charles McNeill Gray served as Mayor of Chicago, Illinois for the Democratic Party....
, Marshall Field
Marshall Field
Marshall Field was founder of Marshall Field and Company, the Chicago-based department stores.-Life and career:...
, Richard Teller Crane, Martin Ryerson, John Jacob Glessner, Jacob Bunn, John Whitfield Bunn, John Graves Shedd, Cyrus Hall McCormick, Edward Avery Shedd, Charles Banks Shedd, Leander McCormick, Stanley Field, Charles Deering
Charles Deering
Charles Deering was an American businessman, art collector, and philanthropist. He was an executive of the agricultural machinery company founded by his father that became International Harvester. Charles's successful stewardship of the family firm left him with the means and leisure to indulge...
, James Deering
James Deering
James Deering was an industrialist executive in the family Deering Harvester Company and subsequent International Harvester, a socialite, and an antiquities collector. He is known for his landmark Vizcaya estate, where he was an early 20th century resident on Biscayne Bay in the present day...
, Robert Law
Robert Law
Lieutenant-General Robert A. Law was a British Army officer and colonial administrator for the colony of Newfoundland....
, Francis Peabody, Leonard Richardson, Milo Barnum Richardson
Milo Barnum Richardson
Milo Barnum Richardson was president of the Barnum Richardson Company. He served as a state representative and a state senator. Richardson was the son of industrialist Leonard Richardson. Milo B. Richardson served on the Connecticut Board of World's Fair Commissioners at the World's Columbian...
, Joseph Edward Otis, Frank Hatch Jones, Arthur Jerome Eddy
Arthur Jerome Eddy
Arthur Jerome Eddy was an American lawyer, author, art collector, and art critic. He was one of the first generation of Americans who collected Modern art...
, Arthur J. Caton, Nathaniel Kellogg Fairbank, Ezra Butler McCagg, Julius Rosenwald
Julius Rosenwald
Julius Rosenwald was a U.S. clothier, manufacturer, business executive, and philanthropist. He is best known as a part-owner and leader of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and for the Rosenwald Fund which donated millions to support the education of African American children in the rural South, as well...
, Morris Selz, Harry Selz, William McCormick Blair, William Douglas Richardson, Charles Farwell, James Monroe Stryker and John Stryker of the Bunn-Richardson-Stryker-Taylor family (See: John Whitfield Bunn and Jacob Bunn), Samuel Insull
Samuel Insull
Samuel Insull was an Anglo-American innovator and investor based in Chicago who greatly contributed to creating an integrated electrical infrastructure in the United States. Insull was notable for purchasing utilities and railroads using holding companies, as well as the abuse of them...
, Max Adler, Lucius Fisher, Lucius Teeter, John Peter Altgeld
John Peter Altgeld
John Peter Altgeld was the 20th Governor of the U.S. state of Illinois from 1893 until 1897. He was the first Democratic governor of that state since the 1850s...
, Walter Gurnee, Philip Danforth Armour
Philip Danforth Armour
Philip Danforth Armour, Sr. was an American businessman who founded Armour and Company, an American meatpacking firm.-Biography:...
, Gustavus Franklin Swift
Gustavus Franklin Swift
Gustavus Franklin Swift founded a meat-packing empire in the Midwest during the late 19th century, over which he presided until his death...
, Michael Morris
Michael Morris
Michael Morris may refer to:*Michael Morris, 1st Baron Killanin , Irish lawyer and political figure, became the first Lord Killanin in 1900....
, Jacob Best
Jacob Best
Jacob Best, Sr. was an American brewer who founded what would later become known as the Pabst Brewing Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin...
, Jonathan Y. Scammon, and many others.
Late in the 19th Century, Chicago was part of the bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
craze, as home to Western Wheel Company, which introduced stamping to the production process and significantly reduced costs, while early in the 20th Century, the city was part of the automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
revolution, hosting the brass era car builder Bugmobile, which was founded there in 1907.
It was also home to Grigsby-Grunow, which manufactured radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
s under the Majestic brand until the company failed in 1934. (Majestic Radio and Television Corporation preserved the Majestic name, while General Household Utilities kept Grunow alive.) Chicago also hosted E. H. Scott's Scott Transformer Company, which introduced a high-grade radio in 1928, and grew into Scott Radio Laboratories; this was located at 4450 Ravenswood Avenue in 1946, and produced "very expensive, beautifully-designed, chrome-plated chassis". It added "a line of high-quality television sets in 1949". Other entrant in this business were Zenith
Zenith Electronics
Zenith Electronics Corporation is a brand of the South Korean company LG Electronics. The company was previously an American manufacturer of televisions and other consumer electronics, and was headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois. LG Electronics acquired a controlling share of Zenith in 1995...
, which started life there in 1918, entering auto radios in the 1930s, and Galvin Manufacturing Corporation, which started manufacturing power supplies in 1928 and went on to automobile radios under the Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
marque in 1930, as well as Walkie-talkie
Walkie-talkie
A walkie-talkie is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald L. Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, and engineering teams at Motorola...
and Handie-Talkie
Walkie-talkie
A walkie-talkie is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald L. Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, and engineering teams at Motorola...
and for the Army.
Modern-day futures and commodity trading markets were pioneered in Chicago. A number of events led to this, along with Chicago's transportation systems and geographic proximity to the rest of the country. Massive amounts of goods passed through Chicago from places in the Mississippi Valley such as St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. Grain was stored in Chicago, and people began buying contracts on it. Later, people as far away as New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
began buying contracts by telegraph on the goods that would be stored in Chicago in the future. From this were established the Chicago Board of Trade
Chicago Board of Trade
The Chicago Board of Trade , established in 1848, is the world's oldest futures and options exchange. More than 50 different options and futures contracts are traded by over 3,600 CBOT members through open outcry and eTrading. Volumes at the exchange in 2003 were a record breaking 454 million...
(CBOT), the Chicago Mercantile Exchange
Chicago Mercantile Exchange
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is an American financial and commodity derivative exchange based in Chicago. The CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board. Originally, the exchange was a non-profit organization...
(CME), and the modern systems in use today for futures and commodity trading.
| Chicago Economy | |||
| 2000 Census Data United States Census, 2000 The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census... |
Chicago | Illinois | US |
| Manufacturers shipments, 1997 ($1000) | 26,745,880 | 200,019,991 | 3,842,061,405 |
| Wholesale trade sales, 1997 ($1000) | 31,971,060 | 275,968,383 | N/A |
| Retail sales, 1997 ($1000) | 13,882,143 | 108,002,177 | 2,460,886,012 |
| Retail sales per capita, 1997 | $4,944 | $8,992 | $9,190 |
| Accommodation and foodservices sales, 1997 ($1000) | 4,481,917 | 14,826,805 | N/A |
| Total number of firms, 1997 | 176,605 | 882,053 | N/A |
| Minority-owned firms, percent of total, 1997 | 26.7% | 12.5% | 14.6% |
| Women-owned firms, percent of total, 1997 | 27.0% | 27.2% | 26.0% |
See also
- Chicago Convention and Tourism BureauChicago Convention and Tourism BureauThe Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, or CCTB, exists to promote Chicago to the global leisure travel and convention industries.The CCTB works in partnership with the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, the Chicago Office of Tourism, the City of Chicago, and the Illinois Department of...
- List of major companies in the Chicago metropolitan area
- Economy of IllinoisEconomy of IllinoisThe economy of Illinois includes many industries. The Chicago metropolitan area is home to many of the nation's largest companies, including Boeing, McDonalds, Motorola, and United Airlines...
- Great Lakes MegalopolisGreat Lakes MegalopolisThe Great Lakes Megalopolis consists of the group of North American metropolitan areas which surround the Great Lakes region mainly within the Midwestern United States, the Southern Ontario area of Canada, along with large parts of Pennsylvania, New York, and Quebec...