Cornelius Vanderbilt Essays

  • Cornelius Vanderbilt An Entrepreneur

    685 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cornelius Vanderbilt is one of the five tycoons of America. He was able to use both wit and his entrepreneurial skills in order to create a very successful career and legacy. Starting off from the very beginning, young Vanderbilt was able to start his own business. At the age of sixteen, Vanderbilt decided to start his own ferry service with the loan he received by working through his Mother. With the one hundred he was able to obtain, by clearing and planting eight-acre field, Vanderbilt purchased

  • Cornelius Vanderbilt

    2191 Words  | 5 Pages

    come. Cornelius Vanderbilt has become one of the most famous names in American history because of the everlasting positive changes he introduced to the country. Cornelius Vanderbilt was an inspiration for future wealthy personas of the Gilded Age because he fought to limit competition in the developing railroad and steamboat industries; his tactics in these industries lead him to great wealth, which helped him wield enormous power and influence over the American economy and politics. Vanderbilt sought

  • Cornelius Vanderbilt Research Paper

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    in History is Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt went from an eleven year old school dropout to the wealthiest man in the United States. This self-made millionaire changed trade and transportation in the United States forever by building a railroad industry. Americans could travel across the country in less than half the time and buy products they could have never before. His railroad industry connected those in the north, south, east, and west in ways that were unprecedented. Vanderbilt was never recognized

  • What Are Cornelius Vanderbilt Contributions To America

    977 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cornelius Vanderbilt is amongst the richest men in America primarily because of his devotion to American railroad systems and steamship companies. Although he has made great contributions to present day transportation, possibly his most integral beneficence was "the invisible architecture" of the financial system. Vanderbilt was gifted from the very beginning, due to his shrewd nature and ability to adapt to growing demands of industrialization. Despite his lonely upbringing and lack of assistance

  • The Story of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt

    592 Words  | 2 Pages

    innumerable hardships; the introductions of new technologies continued, ultimately leading to increased competition. Competition played an enormous part in the success and downfall of many people during the 19th century, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt, who thrived in competition. Vanderbilt was not born with the skills and abilities to succeed in a field where many fell, he learned from the people he worked under and the conflicts he encountered during his apprenticeships. Those quarrels taught him the skills

  • Cornelius Vanderbilt Research Paper

    1027 Words  | 3 Pages

    differences in the United States, but a key figure in History is Cornelius Vanderbilt. This self-made millionaire changed trade and transportation in the United States forever by building a railroad industry. Americans could travel across the country in less than half the time and buy products they could have never before. His railroad industry connected those in the north, south, east, and west in ways that were unprecedented. Cornelius Vanderbilt was one of the most influential and successful men during

  • Robber Barons in America

    1191 Words  | 3 Pages

    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 busniess 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 his millions upon millions. Cornelius entered the steamer business

  • How Did Cornelius Vanderbilt's Life Influence Your Dream

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    How would your early life influence your dreams? Cornelius Vanderbilt was one who truly started with diminutive resources and worked his way towards the top of the ladder. Vanderbilt was not only an innovative force, but a prosperous business man of power. Pertaining to his personal education, Vanderbilt once said, “If I had learned education I would not have had time to learn anything else.” Cornelius Vanderbilt took the shipping and rail industry to the next level which provided valuable jobs

  • Cornelius Vandebilt

    658 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cornelius Vanderbilt was an enigma, an insanely complex person with conflicting personalities. He started his career opposing the idea of monopolies, a champion for individualism and free markets, but ended his career by building the very things he initially opposed, monopolies. He was a shrewd businessman, who only cared for himself, but during the civil war,he was a national patriot. He was willing to donate his ship, The Vanderbilt (approximately worth over 1 million dollars at that time, a significant

  • Big Business In The Gilded Age

    1022 Words  | 3 Pages

    a natural resource, railroads were considered one of the key factors in almost every widespread industry. It allowed companies to quickly send products across the entire nation without using expensive and time-consuming caravans or wagons. Cornelius Vanderbilt was a prominent leader in the railroad industry at this time. He was already in his later years by the time the Gilded Age rolled around and didn't even get to see the uprising of some of the greatest leaders of the time. The railroad companies

  • Greed

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    service, more convenience, and most importantly, progress. Greed has created thousands of billionaires and millions of millionaires. But why is greed associated with evil? In their day, most capitalists like Cornelius Vanderbilt and John D. Rockefeller were depicted as pure evil. Vanderbilt stole from the poor. Rockefeller was a snake. But the name-calling did not come from the consumers; it was the competing businesses that complained. The newspapers expanded on these comments, calling them "robber

  • Robber Barons: The Industrial Revolution In The United States

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    Robber barons were not concerned about the poor working conditions their employees had to endure. Some robber barons such as Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and Carnegie used monopolies to wipe out all rivalries they had with other companies. As said in the text, “they fought their way through chaotic competition by strictly controlling costs and increasing efficiency at every step” (Stiles)

  • Robber Barons Or Captain Of Industry

    598 Words  | 2 Pages

    robber barons, which were Vanderbilt, Donald Trump, and Andrew Carnegie. There are also leaders called "captains of industry", who consisted of leaders like Rockefeller, J. Morgan, and also Bill Gates. Captains of industry worked hard and actually helped the economy instead of robber barons who insisted on achieving wealth by being ruthless businessman. Leaders of the last century where the building blocks of the Industrial Revolution. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Vanderbilt, and JP Morgan where the

  • Robber Barons: Gates, Carnagie, Rockafeller, Vanderbilt

    830 Words  | 2 Pages

    one modern day baron have been accused of creating monopolies over several different areas. The four barons focused upon are Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Bill Gates. They have all created monopolies over their respected industry. These monopolies eliminated all opposition and left consumers with only one choice. First off is Cornelius Vanderbilt, he built his business with the New York railways. He built the New York Central System by the 1850’s, he also produced the largest

  • Corruption and Prosperity in the Gilded Age

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    Deriving from the famed novel The Gilded Age written by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, the Gilded Age was a time from the early 1860s to the early 1900s of political corruption and vast economic prosperity. After the Civil War, America became determined to reconstruct itself into a society not restricted as to what it could and could not have as individuals in terms of goods and services. America wanted to be viewed as something more than just farmers and craftsmen derived from different nations

  • The Myth of The Robber Barons by Burton W. Folsom

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    few political entrepreneurs, that Folsom tells about. All three of these men worked in the steamboat industry and received federal aid to run their businesses. Also, they all had high prices for passenger fair and mail postage. Unfortunately, Cornelius Vanderbilt, a market entrepreneur, defeated Fulton, Collins and Cunard. On the other hand, Folsom claims that market entrepreneurs should not be labeled as robber barons at all. He also believes that market entrepreneurs were behind the growth of America

  • The Dishonest Success of Jay Gould

    600 Words  | 2 Pages

    the several railways in the 1860s. Around 1867, Jay Gould began to manage the Erie Railroad along with his partners Daniel Drew and Jim Fisk. The trio struggled to keep control of the railroad because of a certain individual by the name of Cornelius Vanderbilt. In order to get the stocks to be legal, they participated in despicab...

  • Cornelius Vanderbilt: A Successful Person In The Railroad Industry

    928 Words  | 2 Pages

    businessman. These are all words that describe Cornelius Vanderbilt. Cornelius Vanderbilt was a well known and very successful person in the shipping and railroad industry. He always sought out new business oppurtunities, and was always thinking a step ahead on how he was going to make money next. Cornelius Vanderbilt’s business strategies and immense skills in the industry made him over 100-million-dollars throughout his lifetime. Ever since Cornelius Vanderbilt was little, he had plans to be a boatman

  • How Did Cornelius Vanderbilt Change The World

    513 Words  | 2 Pages

    United States is growing rapidly because of the railroad and certain types of men. One man is Cornelius Vanderbilt. He wasnt a politician but he was the lead America needed at the time. He was an intelligent business man. He was self made. When he was 16 he bought a ferry on a loan of 100 dollars and turned that ferry into tons of ships. He was so good at shipping he earned the nickname “The Commodore”. Vanderbilt realizes that the railroad is growing rapidly and that is where he needs to make his bank

  • Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, And John D. Rockefeller

    1455 Words  | 3 Pages

    In a time of booming industry and affluent innovators, an era known as the Gilded Age came to be. From this age arose successful businessmen who would soon become captains of industry. Some of these businessmen included Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, and John D. Rockefeller. In their success, these men acquired large monopolies which upset many lower-class citizens. It seemed to them that as each monopoly grew, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Frustrated, low-paid workers started