Burt Folsom on "Myth of the Robber Barons" talks a lot about political entrepreneurs and one aspect that greatly came to my attention was the transcontinental railroad. The Mid-late to 1800s is when the transcontinental railroad was starting to be constructed. The government decided to send out two subsidies. One went to the Union Pacific ad the other to the Central Pacific. The government’s idea was that each company would start from their end, east to west and west to east, so they meet in the middle. The subsidies work by each company getting paid by how much track they lay down. The Union Pacific was laying track in a more of an “s” shape instead of a straight line in the flat land of Nebraska to get more subsidies. When the Union Pacific came to the challenge of the mountains in Colorado, they decided to lay track based on convincing not on the best route for the train. This resulted in the trains now being able to go up the mountainsides. The Union Pacific also used dynamite to blow up Central Pacific’s progress so the Union Pacific has more of an opportunity to gain more subsidies. The Central Pacific responded with more dynamite. Congress stepped in and threatened to take the subsidies away if they continued. Even Though the dynamite stopped, the railroads did not follow what the government wanted and kept on building the railroads past each other instead of meeting together. The government again stopped the progress and only paid them to meet. Congress proclaimed the only way this would be complete was with subsidies. James Hill proved them wrong. He is from Minnesota and he built a railroad without subsidies from St. Paul to Seattle. He made exports profitable and slowly, but steadily. He used Lewis and Clarks’ notes to build it through the flattest parts of the mountains. It was called the Great Northern Railroad and never went broke unlike the other railroad in 1893. This is a great example of political entrepreneurship advantage. James Hill was a political entrepreneur who produced an overall better transcontinental railroad. Although this was in the mid to late 1800s, this is a more simple way to see the advantages and think of a way to apply them to today’s world. Market entrepreneurs do have their advantage in this day and age, but I do see political entrepreneurs coming into play in the future because of the changing world.