One key reason why the expansion of the railroads caused prices of products to drop during the Gilded Age is that railroads provided cheap and fast transportation for both raw materials and finished goods. This reduced the overall cost of moving products from production sites to markets, which lowered the prices consumers paid. Railroads greatly increased the efficiency and speed of transporting goods, allowing businesses to expand their markets, produce more at lower costs, and increase competition, all of which contributed to driving prices down.