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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 16 |
| 1877 | 23 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1880 | 6 |
46 stories matching capit
- Seattle Incorporates Northern Pacific Iron Works
A look at the birth of the Northern Pacific Iron Works, a grand manufacturing dream that once promised to turn Seattle into a regional powerhouse.
- The Brutal Statistics of Poverty in 1880
A report in the Seattle Daily Intelligence uses cold, hard data to argue that the 'reproduction of capital'—human life—is threatened by the crushing weight of poverty and labor conditions.
- The Seattle-Walla Walla Rail Ambition
An 1877 editorial proposes leveraging global capital gluts to fund the critical narrow-gauge railway connection, a lifeline for the territory's economic future.
- The Political Fever of 1880
As Washington Territory tallied its votes for Delegate to Congress, local editors traded barbs and grand dreams of a future state capital.
- The Price of Panic: 1876 Seattle Views on Labor and Economic Depression
An editorial from the Seattle Daily Intelligencer explores the deep-seated economic anxieties of the era, blaming trade disputes and 'idle' men for the systemic instability of the Pacific Northwest.
- The Confidence Man of Front Street
A colorful encounter with a local schemer illustrates the 'get-rich-quick' fever that defined the early days of Seattle's business district.
- The High Price of the Cedar Harvest
An 1876 editorial from Seattle critiques the 'disproportionately large pay' of loggers, blaming high wages for the financial instability of the industry.
- The Forgotten Quest for an Agricultural Mortgage Bank
An 1877 op-ed from the Seattle Daily Intelligencer argues that the Territory's economic future depends on fixing the rural credit crunch.
- The Murderer in the Parlor
A frontier tavern killing, a suspicious trial, and a woman who rose from obscurity to the height of Washington society—only to be haunted by a past she thought she’d buried.
- Puget Sound Herring Fisheries Need Capital and Experience
A local editor argues that Seattle’s budding herring industry is destined to become a global titan—if only local businessmen would stop throwing away the fertilizer.
- The Vampire of Hard Times: Why Seattle's Banks Are Starving Its Growth
An editorial in the March 1877 *Seattle Intelligencer* blames the region’s economic stagnation not on a lack of enterprise, but on predatory lending rates that are strangling local industry.
- The Price of Loyalty in 1880 Seattle
As Seattle went to the polls in 1880, local editors warned that political fealty to the Republican party was the only way to secure the University and future federal favors.
- The 'Bear of Third Street' Prank
A group of rowdy boys in 1880s Seattle found a cruel way to terrorize women walking home alone at night.
- The Great Housing Squeeze: Seattle's Winter Crisis of 1876
As the territory prepares for winter, a correspondent reports that only two comfortable dwellings remain vacant in Walla Walla, highlighting the acute housing shortages gripping Washington communities.
- The Sugar Rush: Seattle's Pacific Ambitions in 1876
A century and a half ago, Seattle business leaders were banking on a trade treaty with Hawaii to turn the city into the West Coast’s sugar refining capital.
- The Struggle to Launch Seattle’s Shipbuilding Future
A century and a half ago, Seattle’s local editors argued that the city’s vast timber resources should have made it a global marine power, but capital and labor were held back by East Coast monopolies.
- The Snohomish Runaway
A husband’s search for his wife ends in a bitter surprise after she leaves him penniless at a hotel.
- The Hidden Gold of the Swamps
While pioneers once clung to the sandy prairies, Seattle's growing interest in 'tule lands'—the rich, reclaimed marshes of the Sound—reveals a new frontier for agricultural wealth.
- The Push for a Western Migration
In 1877, Seattle boosters and railroad agents mapped out a deliberate campaign to transform the Puget Sound basin from a 'remote' wilderness into a thriving, industrial metropolis.
- The Coal Rush: How 1876 Industry Linked Seattle and Tacoma
A historic editorial argues that the expansion of Northern Pacific Railroad coal lines from Puyallup will drive mutual prosperity for Seattle and its southern neighbor.
- The Steilacoom Bubble That Burst
A grand, failed railway scheme proves that even the most ambitious 'railroad kings' can't build an empire without a single cent in the bank.
- The Potato Crisis of 1877
As Puget Sound farmers face crop failure from decades of neglect, editors call for a shift to the 'fine art' of fruit cultivation.
- The 1877 Seattle Real Estate Boom
A local newspaper editorial from 1877 argues that despite economic 'stringency,' land investment remains the safest bet for the city's future.
- The Struggle for the Snoqualmie Pass Trail
As Seattle grew, settlers in the Kittitas Valley argued that their future prosperity—and the survival of their farms—depended entirely on carving a road through the Cascade Mountains.
- Seattle Investors Plan a Boot Factory and Tannery
Before tech and aerospace, Seattle’s business elite plotted to stop shipping raw hides to San Francisco and instead build a city of tanneries and shoe factories.