A Decade of Regulatory Change.

The years from 1900 through 1909 stand in sharp contrast to the post-Civil War years, when the legislative and judicial branches were uncritical in their support of business efforts to rebuild the country's economic infrastructure. The first decade of the twentieth century saw an extraordinary amount of landmark legislation and Supreme Court rulings aimed at regulating business practices, involving such areas as antitrust laws, fiscal policy, labor disputes, and consumer goods.

Legislation.

The legislation passed in the decade that affected business included nine important acts, the earliest of which was the Gold Standard Act (1900). Passed by Congress as a means of developing an efficient national currency, the act established national banks, with capital resources of at least $25,000, in towns of fewer than three thousand inhabitants to finance agrarian demands. The act also included provisions for gold redemptions for...