The First Crisis: A Bad Year

A boom always reaches its greatest velocity just before it crashes, and in the opening months of 1920 the automobile industry was moving at a high velocity indeed. Ford planned to make 1,000,000 Model T’s. Durant scheduled a 550,000-car output, including 200,000 Buicks, 120,000 Chevrolets, and 100,000 Oaklands. The Oakland schedule required a $3,000,000 construction [...]

The First Crisis: A Worse Year

From a production standpoint, 1921 was much worse than 1920. The total output was only 1,680,000 automobiles, of which more than 1,000,000 were made by Ford. Yet nobody expected 1921 to be a good year, and nobody put up any plant or acquired any inventory that he could not use. Furthermore, the industry finally abandoned [...]

After The War

The end of hostilities brought no end to the war inflation. There was much discussion of the need (and the opportunity) of feeding starving Europe and rebuilding ruined Europe, although the question of how starved and ruined Europe was going to pay for high priced American goods was not so often discussed. And everyone seemed [...]

America in the War

The second phase of the war boom covers the period of America’s participation in the war. The years 1917 and 1918 were not a good time for the automobile industry. In the first place, the auto manufacturer did not make money out of the war. In the second place, the scarcity of steel almost compelled [...]

The difficulties of General Motors

While Ford was having trouble with his stockholders, Storrow and Nash at General Motors were having a much worse time with theirs. You will remember that Durant had bought control of the Chevrolet (in November, 1911). The car was named for its designer, Louis Chevrolet, until then best known as a driver of racing cars. [...]

Henry Ford’s Difficulties

While the automobile industry was expanding so rapidly and so profitably, Ford and General Motors were going through a period of internal strife and personal difficulties. Ford had two kinds of trouble that which he brought upon himself and that which came to him chiefly from the Dodges. Ford’s self-created problems, which were more spectacular [...]

The War Boom

The War of 1914-18 made a profound change in American economy. During the period from 1910 to 1914, American industry was not passing through any period of rapid expansion. In 1914 itself, business was definitely in a slump, with conservative circles applying to Woodrow Wilson’s “New Democracy” a few of the milder epithets that they [...]

The Concentration of the Industry

Before discussing the automobile industry in the war boom, it is desirable to draw a distinction between the number of makes of automobile – which was very large – and the number of makes which reached a position of economic importance – which was very small. The automobile industry was never a struggle between several [...]

The Growth of the Industry

The period between 1910 and 1914 is commonly looked back upon as a period of great automobile expansion. It would be better described as a period of great Ford expansion. The rest of the industry showed no sensational increase in its sales. The 1910-1914 output (including Fords) was: 1910 181,000 1911 199,000 1912 356,000 1913 [...]

General Motors Again

While Ford was running away from the rest of the automobile industry, General Motors was giving every appearance of standing still. Storrow and his fellow bankers were not in the least concerned with production records, at least not until after they had disposed of some of the debris inherited from Durant. Three truck companies were [...]

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Nicholas Joseph Cugnot

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The First Crisis: A Bad Year

The First Crisis: A Worse Year

After The War

America in the War

The difficulties of General Motors

Henry Ford’s Difficulties

The War Boom

The Concentration of the Industry

The Growth of the Industry

General Motors Again

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