Desperate Acts of Capitalism

63: John Henry Patterson

Added 2025-01-24 20:00:05 +0000 UTC

Sabotage. Intimidation. Disinformation and junk mail campaigns. These were the four horsemen of John H. Patterson, the mad king of Dayton, Ohio. As founder of the National Cash Register Company in 1884, he contributed little to the design of the world's first cash registers. As a marketer and ruthless monopolist, he revolutionized sales practices in the United States, building a sprawling empire that went out of its way to gobble up even the most marginal competitors. In time, his monomania and eccentricities led to his own demise, but his legacy as an industrialist was nothing if not complex.

Edited and thumbnail by Noah

Sources:

John H. Patterson–John Patterson rang up success with the incorruptible cashier

By Mark Bernstein

https://www.daytoninnovationlegacy.org/patterson.html

John H. Patterson and the early sales practices of NCR By Jon M. Hawes

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349697991_John_H_Patterson_and_the_early_sales_practices_of_NCR

Successful Monopolization Through Predation: The National Cash Register Company By Kenneth Brevoort and Howard P. Marvel

https://ideas.repec.org/h/eme/rlwezz/s0193-5895(04)21003-x.html

6 things you didn’t know about NCR’s John Patterson By Allegra Czerwinski

https://www.daytondailynews.com/lifestyles/things-you-didn-know-about-ncr-john-patterson/K65i9ONHk46rKchxEUN2BN/