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Many people see John D. Rockefeller as a great industrialist, which I can't argue with. But he was also a rather corrupt person. In order for him to build a monopoly the way he did, you have to squish some little guys in the process, but he didn't just squish some, he put several rival businesses out of business. Which is where the debate comes up about whether John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil company just one giant corrupt system or if John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil company was a major point in America's economic history.
John D. Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839 in Richford, New York. His family lived in Richford until he was 14, when they moved to Cleveland, Ohio. Around that time, Rockefeller began to learn the value of a dollar. As a young teen, he had many odd jobs that kept him very busy. He raised turkeys, sold candy and worked for his neighbors. After high school, where he excelled in math, he went on to attend a commercial college. Which is a college that teaches commercial skills,such as bookkeeping. After completing his training to be a bookkeeper, which was only about three months. He went on to work as a bookkeeper for Hewitt & Turtle, a commission merchant and produce shipper.
Rockefeller
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worked for Hewitt & Turtle from 16 until he was 19. Soon after, he and another fellow by the name of Clark opened their own Commission merchantship. Which is basically a company that gets paid to ship products, like an old school UPS or FedEx. The company Clark and Rockefeller shipped hay, meats and grains, in doing so managed to gross $450,000 of income in the first year, 1860. Which equals $12.6 million in today's money as calculated for the current inflation rate. Rockefeller quickly found that he was meant to be in the office while Clark took care of the hands on side of owning a business. "In 1863, just a few years after starting his own business, Rockefeller and several partners entered the booming new oil industry by investing in a Cleveland refinery (John D. Rockefeller)." In a mere two years after initially investing in the Cleveland oil company, Rockefeller bought enough shares in order to gain control of the company. Soon after gaining control, it became the largest oil refinery in the area. Then in 1870, Rockefeller along with associates set out to create the biggest oil refinery in the nation. They were able to get into the industry with very "favorable economic/industrial conditions (John D. Rockefeller Biography)" which created an immense advantage for them. This new company they set out to create had a few key characters at the helm. John D. Rockefeller at the very top and his brother, William Rockefeller, along with business partners Henry M. Flagler and Stephen V. Harkness right below him. William Rockefeller was a business guru, just like his older brother John. He had his own commission merchantship with a partner at the age of 21 but was not as well known as his brother. He became a very key player in the Standard Oil Company. He was the head of exports as well as the head of the New York and New Jersey branches of Standard Oil. Flagler and Harkness, just like William, were not as well known, but they were still very active within the company.
Henry M. Flagler was a grain merchant at the age of 20. Flagler met Rockefeller when he sold grain through Rockefeller's first company, Clark and Rockefeller. Flagler then partnered with Rockefeller to start Standard Oil and was the Director of the New Jersey branch until 1911. Stephen V. Harkness started as an apprentice harness maker from the age 15 until he was 21. But he wanted to do something more business oriented, so he bought a distillery in Ohio, and eventually partnered with Rockefeller. Harkness invested somewhere between $60 and $90 thousand dollars and was basically Rockefeller's right hand man until his
death. After a single year of being Standard Oil, the company was worth $1 million dollars. Granted that doesn't sound like much for a company value, that was in 1870. After calculating for the inflation rate over the years, it would be worth $20 million in today's dollar value. It was also doing 1/10 of the American oil refining after a single year, but Rockefeller wanted more and more. Rockefeller was anything but a stickler for the rules. Through the years of being in charge, he would do whatever was necessary to expand the company and increase profit margin. Dirty deals were made with railroad companies to ship his oil for cheaper as well as price dropping other companies until they wave the white flag. Which basically means lowering his prices because Standard Oil had such a surplus of money it could afford to while others couldn't. He would then buy out the companies he would destroy and increase his footprint as well as resources. Rockefeller also increased his profit margin by controlling every aspect of the refining process. He would buy pipelines and the substations so that the company wouldn't have to pay an outside company to move his oil. Standard Oil also manufactured its own barrels, which meant buying up land for lumber. And that would mean literally blocking the competition, as well as more land for drilling once it was logged. The company would also research more efficient ways to transport their oil, like designing better barrels and better oil tank cars. But whatever was gained was never enough. He would buy out any refineries he could get his hands on. He would do all he could to send Standard Oil "coast to coast in the U.S. And abroad (John D. Rockefeller Biography)." And in just over a decade, Standard Oil was as close to a monopoly as any company had ever been, as well as stretching across the entire United States as well as Europe, Asia and Latin America. Standard Oil was like one giant umbrella with John D. Rockefeller holding the handle. At the peak of power in 1883, the federal government took notice. At that time, Standard Oil was 40 businesses, controlled by 9 stockholders all under one trust. Standard Oil became the "first monopoly/trust in the U.S. (John. D. Rockefeller Biography)." The government started its action with the Ohio Supreme Court finding them to be in violation of having too much control over the market. But Rockefeller saw it coming so he broke the company into 9 smaller businesses, one controlled by each of the 9 shareholders, with him still at the top. Then the United States Supreme Court created the Sherman Antitrust Act, which made monopolies illegal. In 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act highly recommended that the Standard Oil Company should be disbanded. But Rockefeller made sure to do it in such a way so that 9 years later, in 1899, the company was able to reform as a holding company, with Rockefeller at the top again, just in more of a secretive way. It was able to fly under the radar until 1911, when the Supreme Court force Standard oil to be sold off to the hands of many wealthy people. Being he was forced to sell his company, Rockefeller and his associated made fortunes by breaking Standard Oil into 30 little companies and sold to the highest bidder. During all of this, Rockefeller was a very easy target for Muckraking journalists. To a journalist, he was nothing but a greedy, low life, unethical person. Throughout the life of Standard Oil, he has many articles written about the rebates he gave, his price fixing and the bribes he made. John D. Rockefeller was also a very good guy despite his actions that may not have been so great. Over his lifetime, he gave over $550 million dollars to charities. He even had an organization named after him, the Rockefeller Foundation. Which was a charity organization to better mankind. His donating started very early on, with his very first job at the age of 16, he would give 1/10 of his earnings to charity. He gave $80 million to the University of Chicago alone because he so heavily supported philanthropy. He retired at the age of 56 with his wife Laura. They had five kids in total, one of notable mention. John Rockefeller II followed in his father's footsteps by being a very devout philanthropist. He established the United States Service Organizations during WWII, which was an organization to help get supplies for our troops during the war. John D. Rockefeller lived a very interesting life. With his early beginnings in the business world to his huge network of connections. Then leading him through the creation of America's first monopoly and become the richest man in America. As well as being a dedicated philanthropist and donating a large portion of his earnings to charitable organization. His interesting life ended after 98 years when he died on May 23, 1937.
The Gilded Age refers to a period in which things were fraudulent and deceitful; the surface was clinquant while underneath that lustrous coat laid corruption. During the Gilded Age companies recruited to corrupt methods to further increase profits, leading to an increase in power, rapid economic prosperity, and domination of industries, leading to monopolistic corporations. As a result, antitrust laws to regulate business began to emerge in the late 19th and early 20th century known as the Progressive Era. Among these companies was Standard Oil, which was founded in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller; in 1880, Standard Oil was responsible for refining 90 percent of America’s oil and between 1880-1910, dominating the oil industry (Marshall). The lack of intervention from the government and regulations impeding monopolistic practices allowed Standard Oil to
John D. Rockefeller as a Robber Baron A "robber baron" was someone who employed any means necessary to enrich themselves at the expense of their competitors. Did John D. Rockefeller fall into that category or was he one of the "captains of industry", whose shrewd and innovative leadership brought order out of industrial chaos and generated great fortunes that enriched the public welfare through the workings of various philanthropic agencies that these leaders established? In the early 1860s Rockefeller was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, who came to epitomize both the success and excess of corporate capitalism. His company was based in northwestern Pennsylvania. A major question historians have disagreed on has been whether or not John D. Rockefeller was a so-called "robber baron".
I would first like to tell you about Cornelius Vanderbilt. Cornelius Vanderbilt was born in Port Richmond on Staten Island, N. Y. in 1794. Cornelius, at the age of 16, had already stepped into the business world and he didn’t even know it. At 16 he entered into the steamboat business when he established a freight and passenger service between Stanton Island and Manhattan. Little did Cornelius know this would be one of the key ways he would make millions upon millions.
Many people consider Rockefeller a robber of industry because of his forcible ways of gaining his monopolies. Rockefeller was fond of buying out small and large competitors. If the competitors refused to sell they often found Rockefeller cutting the prices of his Standard Oil or in the worst cases, their factories mysteriously blowing up. Rockefeller was obsessed with controlling the oil market and used many of undesirable tactics to flush his competitors out of the market. Rockefeller was also a master of the rebate game. He was one of the most dominant controllers of the railroads. He was so good at the rebate that at some times he skillfully commanded the rail road to pay rebates to his standard oil company on the traffic of other competitors. He was able to do this because his oil traffic was so high that he could make or break a section of a railroad a railroad company by simply not running...
Rockefeller was a Robber Baron for the simple reason that he was greedy and selfish. He has treated his workers horribly and did use his money for others. He used aggressive tactics to get to where he was.
Let us first look at Mr. Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was a mogul in the steel industry. Carnegie developed a system known as the vertical integration. This method basically cut out the ‘middle man’. Carnegie bought his own iron and coal mines (which were necessities in producing steel) because purchasing these materials from independent companies cost too much and was insufficient for Carnegie’s empire. This hurt his competitors because they still had to pay for raw materials at much higher prices. Unlike Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller integrated his oil business from top to bottom. Rockefeller’s system was considered a ‘horizontal’ integration. This meant that he followed one product through all phases of the production process, i.e. Rockefeller had control over the oil from the moment it was drilled to the moment it was sold to the consu...
John Adams was born in Braintree, what is now Quincy, Massachusetts, on October 30, 1735. His father was a farmer, a deacon of the First Parish of Braintree, and a militia officer. John's mother came from a leading family of Brookline and Boston merchants and physicians. John studied hard in the village school. He was twenty three years old when he graduated from Harvard in the class of 1755. He began to practice law in Braintree in 1758. John and Abigail first met in 1759.
Rockefeller was the founder of the Standard Oil Company who utilized horizontal integration to dominate the oil industry; Rockefeller was another capitalist considered to be a “robber baron” of industrial America between the time period of 1865 and 1909 who acquired a great amount of wealth. This money was acquired with the usage of cutthroat tactics that disadvantaged his competitors immensely; Rockefeller did anything to increase his own wealth. He ran competitors out of business, lowered his prices drastically in places where competition was rough, and even threatened companies into bankruptcy, such as Ida Tarbell’s father’s business. Rockefeller believed that industrial combinations were a necessity and firmly believed in them being of benefit to the public (Doc. 6). James B. Weaver, a Populist presidential candidate, however, {disproves} this alleged belief that trusts were for the benefit of the public {theory} in his book A Call to Action by stating that trusts are the product of “threats, intimidation, bribery, fraud, wreck, and pillage” (Doc. 3). He further discredits trusts by providing an example of how the Oat Meal Trust in 1887 proved to be extremely unfortunate for and to the disadvantage of the laborers at the mills who lost their jobs (Doc. 3). This shows that the trusts that Rockefeller thrived on and made Rockefeller wealthier, though advantageous for consumers and Rockefeller himself, could often be to the disadvantage of the laborers. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller and other members of his family produced the fuel that powered America and Europe. In fact, 85% of the world's kerosene supply was produced in a company of Rockefeller's in Pennsylvania. J.P. Morgan, a giant in finance was equally successful by capitalizing small businesses and taking private corporations public. His genius for investing and financing was known world-wide. Because of Morgan and investors like him the American economy grew at a rate that the world had not seen before. His "Gentlemen's Agreement" brought stability to a railroad industry that was unstable because of it's incredible growth. The agreement regulated rates, settled disputes and imposed fines for companies that did not abide by the terms of their contracts. J.P. Morgan helped create a centralized banking system and paved the way for what was to become The Federal Reserve. Henry Ford a corporate giant in transportation built the Ford Motor Company and
To describe John D. Rockefeller in one word would be an extremely difficult, if not impossible thing to do. Rockefeller was known by so many things in his time and still today; a captain of industry who revolutionised the American economy with new business practices and keen management of what he controlled, a robber baron who lied and cheated his way to the top with back room dealings and taking advantage of the most disadvantaged of people. In his early life, Rockefeller grew up in Richmond, New York with his two brothers and two sisters about 20 years before the start of the Civil War as the child of Eliza Davison and William Avery Rockefeller. His father was con artist who spent most of John’s life traveling selling his various elixirs and his mother was a devout Baptist who John said shaped his life and most of his religious views for the rest of his life. Towards the end of his life, Rockefeller had built up a beyond substantial fortune but, seeing as how he was now retired from the oil industry and had no desire to invest into a new business, he decided to follow Andrew Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth by donating the bulk of his wealth to charity. John D. Rockefeller was truly a man who was almost undefinable despite the simple black and white labels that most people and historians have pinned upon him, as we examine his life it can be determined that Rockefeller was neither an evil man nor a good one but someone who lived his life in the grey.
John Pierpont Morgan was born on April 17, 1837 in Hartford, Connecticut. He was nicknamed "Pip" by his childhood friends. The family prospered in Hartford until Junius moved the family to Boston where Pip began Boston English High. He did well in the prestigious high school and then in his second high school in Vevey, Switzerland. The family moved to London and John transferred to the University of Gottingen in Germany. John continued to excel in his studies and majored in mathematics. He began to become interested in business affairs as he started and investing club amongst his friends and...
Rockefeller was America’s first billionaire, and he was the true epitome of capitalism. Rockefeller was your typical rags-to-riches businessman, and at the turn of the twentieth century, while everyone else in the working class was earning ten dollars max every week, Rockefeller was earning millions. There has been much discussion as to whether Rockefeller’s success was due to being a “robber baron”, or as a “captain of industry”. By definition, a robber baron was an industrialist who exploited others in order to achieve personal wealth, however, Rockefeller’s effect on the economy and the lives of American citizens has been one of much impact, and deserves recognition. He introduced un-seen techniques that greatly modified the oil industry. During the mid-nineteenth century, there was a high demand for kerosene. In the refining process from transforming crude oil to kerosene, many wastes were produced. While others deemed the waste useless, Rockefeller turned it into income by selling them. He turned those wastes into objects that would be useful elsewhere, and in return, he amassed a large amount of wealth. He sold so much “waste” that railroad companies were desperate to be a part of his company. However, Rockefeller demanded rebates, or discounted rates, from the railroad companies, when they asked to be involved with his business. By doing so, Rockefeller was able to lower the price of oil to his customers, and pay low wages to his workers. Using these methods,
John Jay was born in New York City on December 12, 1745 and was a self devoted leader that help the United States get to where it is today. He served a very important role in the Founding Fathers establishment as well as bringing overall greatness to the country. He devoted himself to the American Revolution as well as becoming the first Chief Justice of the United States. Serving in the Continental Congress, and becoming president of the congress gave him great power and confidence within himself.
The United States has come to be known as a major world superpower throughout history. One of the main parts of America that has contributed to its renowned strength has been its economy. The United State’s economy has been growing ever since it began. Credit for its strength and progress in development can be attributed to the financial geniuses of their time. John D. Rockefeller became an economical giant during his time when he changed the face of business by developing ground-breaking new strategies to ensure financial success. Rockefeller dramatically changed the business field during The Gilded Age. He did so through the use of his social Darwinistic philosophy of capitalism, inclusion of vertical and horizontal integration, combination of both his business views and religious beliefs, his Standard Oil Company along with specific refinery processes. He founded the Standard Oil Company, one of the first types of businesses during its time. Although this company helped Rockefeller become known for his successful and competitive strategies, he did develop these strategies by himself with the use of his own beliefs and views.
Numerous families living in small town America lost their income because of Standard Oil and forced hardship upon many. The legacy of John D. Rockefeller shall always live on as he has permanently shaped how this country looks. He has funded huge advancements in the fields of education and medicine along with starting the events to end lassiez-faire economics. The petroleum industry changed greatly during his career thanks to his research and completely new business methods were thought up of by him, some still in practice today.