| This dissertation examines the history of merchant capitalism in the Southwest from the end of the Civil War to the beginnings of the Great Depression. Rather than studying one mercantile family only, it examines the variety of traders who lived in New Mexico and Arizona. The dissertation is a collective biography, or a regional synthesis, of large and small merchants and forms a composite portrait of the individuals under study.;Merchants transformed the Southwest from a rural and subsistence economy to one that was modern, urban, and thoroughly tied to the United States. Traders acquired wholesale amounts of manufactured goods on credit which they bartered for raw commodities. Merchants sold their customers' agricultural and mineral products, earned a profit off the sale, and liquidated their customers' debts. They also earned profits off the commodities' sale, which provided the economic incentive for rural people to gain greater profits from the increase of their farm, ranch, and mineral production. Economic growth encouraged other business owners to settle in the Southwest, resulting in the percentage of Hispano merchants falling relative to the new traders coming from the eastern United States, Europe, China, Lebanon, and Syria. The modern economy of the Southwest was increasingly competitive, with new department stores, mail-order houses, and national chain stores competing with the general merchant and small retail stores.;The Southwest's economic transformation could not have taken place without the existence of merchants. Storeowners funneled eastern capital into the production of agricultural and mineral products and were heavily diversified in all aspects of the rural economy. Merchants had the necessary education, business experience, and the entrepreneurial spirit to succeed in business; they also had the family support to build successful mercantile establishments. Their actions helped to bring about the rise of new forms of business organization and revolutionized the Southwest's modern economy. |
