Capital and Entrepreneurship in the Great West

Capital and Entrepreneurship in the Great West Both nineteenth-century observers and modern scholars have celebrated Chicago's distinctiveness. To those who witnessed the lake city's explosive growth during the middle decades of the nineteenth century, the city's ascent seemed unique and unprecedented. Twentieth-century analysts have provided sophisticated and thoughtful examinations of the great western metropolis' development, although they too have often emphasized the unique and idiosyncratic qualities that made Chicago the great city of the West. A rich historical literature, for example, explores the role of nature and the city's special relationship to its hinterland and its linkages to the nation's capital and commercial centers. Even comparative studies have focused on the unusual qualities of the great boom town of the Midwest. An emphasis on these qualities of Chicago has diverted attention from examinations of both the sources of such apparent distinctiveness and the process of urban development.1 Comparisons with St. Louis often provide the backdrop for analyses of Chicago's growth. The character of the river city's merchants and the sources of their capital as well as the city's transportation and economic ties to the Atlantic seaboard are contrasted with those of Chicago. St. Louis was the conservative capital of a small and relatively impoverished subregion, and Chicago was the restless giant, with aggressive leaders who forged powerful and direct links to the heart of the national economy

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