USS ALASKA
Captain
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2016
The U. S. Government by this time had geared up into a total war effort for manufacturing outputs. They north became united with one purpose, to conquer the rebellion. We did it again in WWII when car factories produced tanks and planes, and army jeeps.Beginning in September of 1863, there was a virtual merger of the larger railroads with the US Army.
These four bureaucracies were founded upon the administrative genius of Government control and decision-making. The right men were in the right place and time with enough experience to see it through.The railroads were one of four bureaucracies that arose during the Civil War. The most important was the Treasury Department which managed the invasive tax system, and collected the money coming in from bond sales.
The second most important was the army quartermaster bureau. The staggering scale on which the quartermaster operated changed the way people of thought of what was possible. I would get Mark Wilson's book The Business of the Civil War to get a sample of the kind of problems that bureaucracy had to deal with.
The third was the blockade. The blockaders were not independent captains. They had assignments and rules and bookkeepers kept track of the capture vessel share and the fleet shares. They reported to their squadron commander and were not free to roam around and make decisions on their own.
But the forth type of bureaucracy were the railroads and they were permanent. They were too big to be sole proprietorships or partnerships, the were companies. They had to have managers to manage the managers. In their consumer markets they tended towards monopoly. But in the capital markets, the labor markets, and even in their vendors markets, they were rivals and competitors.
There was always competition to see who could grow the fastest and who was in the best shape in the inevitable downturns.
Over riding all of it were the big east coast banks, who made fortunes off the war.
The railroads companies and the US logistical efforts were converging on learning how to manage over distance. Both were becoming imperial and bureaucratic, and less entrepenuerial. For the quartermaster bureau, they found a limit with respect to livestock purchases. Instead of bids and contracts, it was better to have the assistant quartermasters tour the livestock stables and see the actual animals. Inspection did require physical effort in many cases.
But the railroads were semi-permanent and their corporate methods paved the way for trusts as they were known in those days. The army logistical effort was an early demonstration of what bureaucrats could achieve, and the railroads continued the development.
That is what made the railroads and the army quartermasters so similar. There were reporting requirements and the standardization of information.One of the major changes / improvements railroads brought to the execution of corporate leadership was communications and the distance of those comms. Unlike a large mill or mine or anything else in a small geographic area, railroads had infrastructure and people spread out over vast distances. Control of assets and operations across their corporate 'landscape' was something that had to be learned, a lot of which by trial and error. Those that didn't learn, disappeared. Even trans-oceanic shipping lines could not and did not have comms like the railroads - at least before the advent of the 'wireless'.
Cheers,
USS ALASKA
The impact of the railways can be seen in the ghost towns left behind as the advancement of the infrastructure chose its pathways, north, east, south and west.One of the major changes / improvements railroads brought to the execution of corporate leadership was communications and the distance of those comms. Unlike a large mill or mine or anything else in a small geographic area, railroads had infrastructure and people spread out over vast distances. Control of assets and operations across their corporate 'landscape' was something that had to be learned, a lot of which by trial and error. Those that didn't learn, disappeared. Even trans-oceanic shipping lines could not and did not have comms like the railroads - at least before the advent of the 'wireless'.
Cheers,
USS ALASKA