The Day the Cracker Kings Merged: How Seattle’s Sweetest Monopoly Was Born
In May 1904, a consolidation of biscuit factories created a new corporate giant with $250,000 in capital, signaling the end of local competition and the rise of concentrated industrial ownership in the Pacific Northwest.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The consolidation of the Pacific Coast Cracker Factories has been confirmed, and the business will be run under one management. Mr. A. P. Durgan, president of the Seattle Cracker Cake Company, has just arrived from San Francisco, where the closing of the deal was effected. The capital stock of the new company is $250,000, and that amount will be used for improvements and extension of business.
Some of the factories will be closed, but it is understood that the Seattle branch will be kept running, and possibly its capacity will be increased.
This 1904 merger of local biscuit manufacturers into a single entity with $250,000 in capital (roughly $8.5 million today) illustrates the early stages of corporate consolidation that defined Seattle’s industrial boom. It mirrors modern concerns about market monopolies and the loss of small business diversity, as independent bakers were absorbed into larger supply chains.
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