John D. Rockefeller: Standard Oil Company
The world’s first billionaire, John D. Rockefeller, was born on July 8, 1839 in Richford, New York, the second of six children. His father was mostly a cheat in business and in life, and he was not a sincere father either since he had raised other children and even had started a family somewhere else. Despite all that John had learned from his father to set high goals and dream big and never to settle for anything less. The family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1853 where John graduated from high school and did pretty good at mathematics. Even as a teenager he was not afraid of hard work and started on several ventures,landing his first real office job at age 16, as an assistant book keeper with Hewitt and Tuttle, commission merchants and produce shippers. He is reported to have celeberated the annual anniversary of landing his first Job even in the later years of his life. Naturally hard working and business minded, by the age of 20, Rockefeller, had
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Because of his enormous success and wealth, John started becoming the centre of journalist and politician’s criticism and backlash who claimed that John’s greed had made him commit unlawful ways of building his business. Even a book was published narrating all the methods and ways used by Rockefeller in his business. This hatred even lead to John being depressed and insomniac and made him think about retiring from the day to day work or the managing of Standard Oil Company. Eventually after years of legal action the court ruled that Standard Oil of New Jersey was in violation with anti trust laws and broke it into pieces. Standard Oil Company being broken into pieces increased John’s wealth even more because John had shares in each of the 34 broken pieces of Standard Oil Company and these new smaller companies would go on to make a lot of money
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".
In these articles, Tarbell showed the readers how Rockefeller conducted these illegal methods through quotes and even interviews with Henry H. Rogers, the most powerful senior executive of Standard Oil. In this series, Tarbell wrote about how Rockefeller made secret agreements with the South Improvement Company (Ida Tarbell, 1857-1944: She Used Her Reporting Skills Against One of the Most Powerful Companies in the World) and how Rockefeller took someone else’s idea to make pipelines for the oil to travel through. Tarbell also wrote about how Rockefeller threatened the small oil producers to sell their businesses to them. Later Ida Tarbell managed to get anti-trust laws to eliminate monopolistic companies and let other smaller companies have a chance at
Another questionable hard workingman is that of John Davison Rockefeller. Rockefeller was born in R...
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.
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 consumer.
When the names Carnagie, Rockefeller, and Pullman come to mind, most of us automatically think of what we saw or read in our history books: "These men were kind and generous and through hard work and perseverance, any one of you could become a success story like them," right? Wrong. I am sick of these people being remembered for the two or three "good deeds" they have done. Publicity and media have exaggerated the generosity of these men, the government has spoiled these names with false lies, and people have been blind to see that these men were ruthless, sly businessmen who were motivated by your money and their struggle for power.
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
...mpanies, it eventually came to the point where they couldn’t keep up and eventually became a part of Standard Oil. By the time Rockefeller had reached the age of 40, his company had controlled all national oil refining by 90% and about 70% of international export of said oil.
James B. Weaver was a populist party candidate in 1892, in his speech ‘The Call to Action’ he referenced the Oatmeal trust of 1887. This trust decided to close part of its mills that “stood idle” and raise the price of oatmeal by a dollar. This business integration took jobs of former employees and raised prices unfairly, cutting corners by producing only seven million barrels of wheat. This tactic isn’t fair to consumers or workers, and it’s unfair. Ida Tarbell, an investigative journalist focused her attention on John D. Rockefeller's company ‘Standard Oil’ and composed the ‘History of Standard Oil Company’. According to Tarbell Standard Oil created a ”remarkable scheme” which competitors couldn’t fight for very long. Standard Oil demanded cheaper rates on their moved oil or ‘rebates’ from railroad companies. This unfair tactic allowed Standard Oil to lower their prices dramatically which would eventually decrease competition. What Tarbell alluded to in her piece was that when a monopoly is achieved over the industry, Standard Oil would be able to raise prices without refutation. William Vanderbilt, the son of the 19th century industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt conducted an interview on the railroads constructed during his father's’ era. According to Vanderbilt, the businesses that
John D. Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839 in Rickford, New York. He grew up in a very poor family. His father was William Avery Rockefeller. He claimed to be a doctor, who for $25 would cure various diseases. His mother was Eliza Davison Rockefeller. She was the role model who taught Rockefeller his values and morals (Poole). John Rockefeller was the second child. Altogether he had five brothers and sisters (Outman 139). As a child he was very business smart. At the young age of 12 he loaned $50 to a famer. He charged a 7% interest. When he was older he said this about the business deal, “The impression was gaining ground with me that it was a good thing to let money be my servant and not make myself a slave to money” (Poole).
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,
Eventually his father consummated a bigamous marriage with a teenage Canadian and left Rockefeller and his mother and siblings. At an early age, it became apparent that young John was not quite like the other children. For instance, he adamantly refused to play with other children unless he could choose the game. In almost every description of him as a child, he is often described as "thinking".
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.
Now, John D Rockefeller may have been a cutthroat businessman; however, Rockefeller’s vision for Standard Oil creates a period of innovation and advancement of the none existent oil industry that remains today. John Rockefeller