Examples Of Robber Barons After The Civil War

The Gilded age was run by big business. It was the time of industrialization, little to no government intervention, and a lot of money for a small group of people. It’s hard to say if many of the prominent business men of this time were really robber barons or captains of industry. Andrew Carnegie might have donated most of his money to worthy causes but he also refused to give his workers better conditions and pay despite his yearly income of $25 million compared to their $380. Rockefeller likewise gave away a large part of his fortune but also engaged in dirty business practices. This fine line between being a robber baron or captain of industry might be common among the businessmen of the Gilded Age but what about our businessmen of today?

In “Taking Sides” Howard Zinn and Andrew S. Gordon argue yes or no to believe if the 19th century entrepreneurs “Robber Baron”? The late nineteenth century is best known for its exceptional growth in extensive business. Across the nation, little organizations were being supplanted by titan partnerships and mechanical combinations, prompting another, uncommon level of riches for the business visionaries who created them. With the increment in enormous business came another level of riches that had never been seen. They likewise mercilessly separated unions and strikes and, to guarantee that their power would not be taken from them, they paid off city, state, and national government officials to stay great to huge organizations. The late nineteenth century prompted more political corruption and oppression that the United States had ever found in the work environment, which is the reason these specialists were truth be told robber barons, not the chiefs of industry they wished to depict themselves as. Howard Zinn argues that 19th century entrepreneurs were robber barons because new industrialist for example Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan endorse business practices that support monopolies and had the government to control the mass rebellions. John S. Gordon believes they were not. He states that big

Another Businessman who was partial to Robber Barons may have been John D. Rockefeller for his method of attaining a large share of the oil industry many believed that Rockefeller gained his power in the Oil Industry by somehow building a monopoly. However through careful of study Rockefeller simply used horizontal consolidation to bring different firms with the same business together. It could not be called a monopoly because they did not merge into one company. John D. Rockefeller did establish trusts or Board of Trusties, which controlled the entire process of making and controlling a product which was extremely similar to that of a monopoly. Because of Rockefeller's Horizontal Consolidation, he did not violate any laws. When he was also near the end of his life Rockefeller also like Carnegie engaged in philanthropy and gave back to the community. On more than one occasion businessmen have resorted to violence of their own by hiring the Pinker-tons to handle any upstart or union. “Those who have been ordered to carry out a task are not the ones stained by it, but those who have given the orders are.” Robber Barons were also excessively competitive and would attempt to either take control of a competitor or drive the business into the ground together. When they perform this, they start to develop monopolies to take total control of a product, which is not legal. Their competitive streak made them more prone to pollution and to the draining the

Though historians have always argued whether the capitalists of this time period that shaped the post Civil War industrial America as either “captains of industry” or “robber barons” the evidence weighing towards the robber baron description are much heavier. These men greatly influence society and will forever be in the debate of the question whether they actually influenced the society and economics in a beneficial way or damaging. To this day the popular opinion is split half and half between the beneficial and damaging sides and there does not seem to be any upcoming

In this chapter, Howard Zinn focuses on the robber barons and rebels of the 19th century. Robber Barons were businessmen who often earned their wealth in dishonest and greedy ways. Favorable laws were made by the government towards the robber barons. The government helped the rich and didn’t care much for the lower class. Great fortune was made on the transcontinental railroad and the oil industry. Both of these companies treated their workers poorly and paid them low wages. Corporations became very powerful by creating monopolies “A system in which one corporation controls all or most of an industry”(173 Zinn). Politicians came up with the idea of communism and socialism, economic systems that would benefit the poor. The Sherman Anti-Trust

The article “John D. Rockefeller: America’s First Billionaire” written by Robert L. Heilbroner displayed a thesis of “Rockefeller was a greedy monopolist who crushed competitors ruthlessly, yet he typified the perfect industrial statesman.” The article states numerous reasons on how Rockefeller was a money scavenger with no regard to other humans, but it also illustrates how he was one of the most successful businessmen. Initially, Heilbroner states, “Rockefeller wanted to own all of the oil and all of the railroads, to create his vast empire.” In accordance, Rockefeller contained about 95% of the oil from simply buying out his competitors. Consequently, Rockefeller also became one of the richest men in American history with his empire. The

The rise of big business began right after the Civil War and during the Industrial Revolution. These businesses would monopolize their competition and exploit others for their sake. The Captains of Industry at the time of the Gilded Age were characterized as “robber barons” who were willing to do anything for wealth and power. The term robber baron means a person who has become rich through ruthless and corrupt business tactics. These robber barons used extreme methods to control and concentrate their wealth and power by lacking morals, using intimidation, bribery, fraud and by being blinded by the fact that what they are doing is for the greater good.

The post-Civil War was a time of reform and industrialization. The United States was recovering from a war that left the nation in shambles, left with none other than itself to rejuvenate. As America strived to get back on its feet big companies also attempted to contribute to helping the economy. However, their efforts and intentions does not alternate the fact that numerous issues were still at large. On one hand these alleged captains of industry have created numerous job opportunities and built many factories, but on the other hand, the employees were underpaid and mistreated and that their entire wealth is based on corrupt actions. While they did keep the economy going and the United States wealthy, robber barons manipulated and preyed

Despite the fact, avoiding a disapproval or blame of capitalism and recognizing Rockefeller’s excellence, she didn’t wait to judge the man for condescending to unprincipled industry performs. Ida Tarbell finished up her sequence through a split appeal learning of Rockefeller, as she defined him as an “existing mummy’’. Civic rage on the disclosure is ascribed with the ultimate collapse of Standard Oil, which arose when the U.S. Supreme Court reined in 1911to the fact that the business was betraying the Sherman Antitrust Act. Ida then eventually enforced the Americans to reflect on the country’s popular industrialist and how he was using despicable strategies to break sincere challengers, pouring truthful men from business. Finally, Standard Oil was divided into small Standards, which included ExxonMobil and Chevron for example. Rockefeller was very surprised and hurt by Ida’s examination. He had clarified her as a toxic woman but had not forgotten to tell the guides not to remark on Ida’s series or any kind of

The big businesses that dominated the United States during the nineteenth century should not be considered Robber Barons. Although some people’s livelihoods were destroyed, they were not setting out just to ruin people’s lives. They wanted to industrialize, make money, and make the United States’ economy more stable. If they continued to operate on a small scale, then the money would continue to be scarce for everyone as it had been in the past. They had to do something different in order to see any kind of change in the way things were going. Without people willing to try new innovative ideas, we would have never become this huge industrial powered nation America is today. The bigger businesses often swept up many of the smaller businesses in the process of industrializing, but in the end it all worked out to make the American economy better and avoid more depressions.

Rockefeller was a robber baron because the ways in which he acquired his vast wealth was done so unethically. First, he bought out all of the other competing oil companies so Standard Oil could have control over the entire market. This was not good because now Standard Oil was able to set the new standards for the market, including quality of the product and price. Critics accused Rockefeller of engaging in unethical practices, such as predatory pricing and colluding with railroads to eliminate his competitors, in order to gain a monopoly in the industry(History.com, 2010).

Because Rockefeller had the power limit who could buy oil by driving prices up, some people were not satisfied with allowing monopolies; however, it was completely legal because back then America had a market economy, commonly know as capitalism, which believed business owners had the freedom to do as they

With this idea in mind Rockefeller bought the largest and best refiners and then proceeded to centralize their management in hopes of better efficiency and economy he would come to name this business Standard Oil (“Rockefeller, John D.”). At this point Rockefeller was a successful businessman but nothing in comparison to what he was to become. Rockefeller decided that he would buy out another large shareholder of Standard Oil due to their lack of ambition to want to expand Standard oil further than it currently was. Rockefeller later wrote that buying out the Clark’s “was the day that determined my career (John, D. Rockefeller)”. After further expansion Standard oil was producing 505 barrels of oil a day which was more than twice that capable of any other local competitors (“John Davison Rockefeller.”).

In the 1870’s through the 1900’s, the Standard Oil Company (SOC) has been the largest company in one of the most rich industries in the world. The Standard Oil Company held a monopoly over the entire industry, which meant that their wide variety of products must have been essential to many types of people and industries. The SOC’s ability to spread awareness of their company and their products is a main reason why they became so powerful. The Standard Oil Company would not be nearly as successful as it was if not for its widespread consumer base, the company became one of the largest in history. This success lead it’s CEO and founder, John D. Rockefeller, to become one of the most rich people to ever live; he also gave away an extremely large portion of his wealth and make the world a better place. Another way that the company 's massive amount of various customers allowed them to succeed is because oil has numerous uses and their products appealed to a wide variety of people. This fact is important because oil’s many different uses made it extremely appealing and marketable to numerous and various audiences, thus allowing the company that controlled the industry to skyrocket and create a monopoly. A monopoly had never really been done before in history and with the huge amount of wealth it created for certain individuals, the wealthy were able to change the world. Oil also led the world to many technological advancements and because of the current decrease in the world’s

Standard Oil, a monopolistic company of massive size, used a lack of regulation in the oil industry to become a leader by unscrupulous business practices. By the year 1878 Standard Oil was in control of more than ninety five percent of the oil business in the United States. “Rockefeller’s strengths in bargaining situations was that he figured out what he wanted and what the other party wanted and then crafted mutually advantageous terms…. Standard Oil formed the South Improvement company in the fall of 1871, supposedly to negotiate “secret” discounts on published railroad tariffs and place independent refiners at a transport cost disadvantage.” (Reksulak, Shughart 2011)