John D. Rockefeller : The Gilded Age Of The Gilded Age

The period during the late 19th century was called ‘Gilded Age’ which meant that the period was glittering and prosperous on the surface but corrupt underneath. It was the time that full of scandal-plagued politic and shady business practice. The famous robber Boss Tweed tried his best to make as much money as he could and did whatever he wants without concerning the corruption and justice.

Twain named it after the “glittering” surface of the time that was covering the vast corruption underneath. The late 19th century would be called the Gilded Age (Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. 2016). From this Gilded Age, a powerful businessman made his mark in American history. John D. Rockefeller ruled the American oil industry. Using his incredible knowledge of business, he rose up through the age to become one of the most influential businessmen in history.

While Standard Oil did come to basically control the price of oil in the United States, it never engaged in 'predatory', or deep and unnecessary price cutting to push out it's competitors. John McGee states this about how Standard Oil accomplished this by other means: “It is correct that Standard discriminated in price, but it did so to maximize profits given the elasticities of demand of markets in which it sold. It did not use price discrimination to change those elasticities. Anyone who has relied upon price discrimination to explain Standard's dominance would do well to start looking for something else. The place to start is merger” (McGee 168). Carnegie on the other hand preferred to buy out all competitors that were in the same area of production as he was, and consolidate. Through consolidating most steel mills in the Pittsburgh/Pennsylvania area, he was able to control that particular step of the production process in the steel business, therefore maximizing his profits like Rockefeller, but in a different way. Carnegie preferred stable prices and stable business, and Harold Hotelling manages to place Carnegie's view on why he consolidated his mills as such: “This is the fact that of all the purchasers of a commodity, some buy from one seller, some from another, in spite of moderate differences of price. If the purveyor of an

At the age of 21, John D. Rockefeller started a business with Maurice B. Clark. The two partners each invested $2000 into "Clark and Rockefeller", which bought and sold grain, fish, water, lime, plaster, and other such products. Despite a severe frost that had damaged the crops, the company "had netted a highly respectable $4,400, tripling the income that John had made during his last year at Hewitt and Tuttle." Even in the very beginning of his business career, Rockefeller saw amazing success.

From 1870 to 1900, the Gilded Age brought about major change in the industry and economy of the United States. Commonly known for the new technologies and inventions of the time, the Gilded Age often brings to mind pictures of booming industries and riches. However, like the term itself, the Gilded Age was much different than it appeared. Widespread poverty and hardships were common in the late 1800s, and many people suffered at the hands of the robber barons. During the Gilded Age, elitists harmed millions through greed, unfair pay, and a dangerous workplace.

John D. Rockefeller was the man who financed Standard Oil, he was also the man considered a robber baron to some and a the perfect industrial statesman to others. Rockefeller grew up in upstate New York and his parents both had different goals for John. His father’s goal was to make John into a sharp young man, while his mother's goal was to make him industrious. One summer John loaned his neighboor some money and in the process realized that, earning capital it preferred over manual labor. This lead Rockefeller to receive a job at Hewitt and Tuttle, but he believed he could do better, so he opened a shipping firm with him acquaintance Maurice Clark. Their business was

Standard Oil’s sales continued to increase, and the company began to acquire smaller companies to continue their rapid growth. When Rockefeller would acquire smaller companies, he would completely shut down the ones he believed were inefficient and keep the ones that he thought he could bring up to his caliber of quality. Unfortunately for the workers from the companies that were shut down, they were put out of work. Rockefeller also began to warehouse oil products in order to have more control over the oil market by having the ability to possess large amounts of oil. Rockefeller had the ability to send in oil, or hold the oil in the warehouses which could cause a riff in the oil market. In order to acquire more business from customers Rockefeller struck a deal with Lake Shore Railroad, to give Standard Oil a 71% discount in return for a promise to ship at least 60 carloads of oil daily and to handle the loading and unloading. This move cut the throats of smaller refineries because they could not produce enough oil fast enough to be able to be offered discounts by railroad companies like Rockefeller did. These deals that Rockefeller had in place allowed

John D. Rockefeller started the first Standard oil-refining company in 1870. He started in the oil business in 1863, investing in a oil company in Cleveland,Ohio. John D. Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839, in Richmond, New York. Growing up, John would sell candy and other things to make money. At the age of 14, John and his family would move to Cleveland, Ohio.

Rockefeller was born on July 8th, 1839. He was an American Business man and the co-owner of the ‘Standard Oil Company.’ He created Standard Oil Company with his brother, William Rockefeller, and four other investors in 1870. As the oil industry grew, his company expanded at a fast past, resulting in the Standard Oil Company pushing out competition and taking over their markets. At Standard Oil’s peek, they owned 95% of all oil produced in the USA, making them the first known monopoly in the country. Rockefeller owned nearly the entire oil business in the United States, and he could set prices at will. Companies in other industries quickly imitated this trust model and used their broad market control to push prices higher. Rockefeller soon became the richest man in the U.S., with his wealth growing to more than a billion dollars. At the time of his death in 1937 he was considered the richest person in US history, having earned the equivalent of more than $336 billion according to inflation, accounting for more than 1.5% of the national economy’s

Another way by which Standard Oil was able to expand was when Rockefeller became worried about the overproduction of oil, which would lead to falling prices. Due to his worries, Rockefeller made up a plan with an alliance of refiners (people who owned the oil processing plants). By the end of 1872, Standard Oil had acquired 34 former rivals, taken control of Cleveland, made alliances with several key New York refiners, and secured even lower shipping rates . Due to such low shipping rates, Standard Oil began to produce other products such as lubricants, candles, paints, and dyes.

First, they built extremely high quality, larger refineries. They also set forth in creating their own cooperage or barrel making plant. The plant ended up cutting the cost per barrel from $3.00 to $1.25 and saving Standard Oil around $4,000,000 per year (John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company). Twenty wagons were purchased by 1868 to more cheaply move the oil. A warehouse was built on the Hudson and East River in New York City and Standard Oil had their own boats to transport the oil. They were also the first to transport the oil via tank cars and invested in a fleet of them. All of these moves were vertical integration steps that reduced the production costs of Standard Oil.

Rockefeller was a smart man and knew he could not jump headfirst into oil on his own. He was not interested in the drilling of oil, he was interested in the refining and shipping of oil (Aaseng 25). Seeing an opportunity, John pressed Clark to use borrowed money to expand their empire. A fight ensued and Rockefeller ended up winning. At age 26, after eliminating Clark, Rockefeller gained the largest oil refinery in Cleveland (Derbyshire 127). With this new refinery, he looked to create a brand, a brand that would crush

The formation of the Standard Oil has been one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the U.S. economy. John D. Rockefeller and associates have been building up the largest oil refinery business to this day known as the Standard Oil Company. Previously, Rockefeller and his partners have focused on wiping out all other competition in the oil industry, along with buying out one of their associates, Maurice B. Clark. The Standard Oil business became one of the biggest industrial companies in the United States and other countries, controlling the transportation, production, refining, and marketing of almost all oil products. More and more Standard Oil companies have been created across the country,

In 1966, Vacuum Oil Company, which was founded in 1866, changed its name to Mobil Oil Corporation and began an extensive advertising campaign to accentuate the name “Mobil.” In 1972, the company previously known as Jersey Standard, which was one of the companies established in 1911 as a result of the US Supreme Court decision to break up Standard Oil Company into 34 unrelated companies, changed its name to Exxon Corporation during a shareholders’ meeting (ExxonMobil).

In 1925 and on behalf of General Eastern Syndicate, Major Frank Holmes founded the first oil in Bahrain. After two years Major Holmes shifted the interest to Gulf Oil Corporation, and after one year it have been sold to Standard Oil of California. Within 1932 the first well of oil has been discovered.