John Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York on July 8, 1839. At the age of just 14 he moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio. At the age of 16 he got a job as an assistant bookkeeper with Hewitt & Tuttle, commission merchants and produce shippers. By the age of 20, Rockefeller went out on his own with a friend of his, working as a merchant in hay, meats, grains and other goods. At the close of the company's first year in business, it had grossed $450,000.
Later on, Rockefeller sensed that the oil business was the best business to be a part of in the early 1860s. With oil production going through the roof in western Pennsylvania, Rockefeller decided to take a risk and established an oil refinery near Cleveland which would turn out to be a great business move. In 1863, he opened his first refinery, and after just two years it was the largest in the area.
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Due to the increasing demands in oil for all new types of technology, Standard Oil immediately prospered. After much success, Rockefeller started to buy out all of his competitors. Within two years Standard’s controlled the majority of the refineries in the Cleveland area. Standard then used its size and name in the region to make favorable deals with railroads to ship its oil. With all of this success, Rockefeller wanted to make sure that he was making as much money as possible, so he bought almost all the aspects of the business. This would mainly include the transportation used to move around all the oil. Over time Standards footprint got bigger, and started to buy out competitors in other regions with a goal of controlling the whole oil
John Davison Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York on July 8, 1839. His family moved to Cleveland, Ohio when he was 14. As a teenager, Rockefeller did many small business jobs, getting his first office job at 16 as an assistant bookkeeper at Hewitt and Tuttle, who were merchants and produce shippers. He did well as all of his jobs, so at the age of 20, a business partner and he started working as merchants, selling meats, grains, hay, and other various things. After just one year, that company earned 450,000 dollars. Rockefeller felt there was a good opportunity in the oil business in the early 1860’s. So, he started his own oil refinery in Cleveland in 1863. By 1865, it was the largest refinery in the area.
The video “Rise of Standard Oil” talks about the world’s largest oil producer company founded in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller
1. What did John D. Rockefeller believe was the key to stabilizing the oil industry? He believed that centralizing the administration, hard-working people that applied themselves and work together, and a monopoly – owning as much as they can – would stabilize the oil industry.
Settlers used oil as an illuminant for medicine and as grease for wagons and tools. Rock oil distilled from shale became avaialable as kerosene even before the industrial revolution began. While traveling in Austria, John Austin, A new york merchant, observed an effective, cheap oil lamp and made a model that upgraded kerosene lamps. Soon the u.s rock oil industy boomed as whale oil increased in price owing to the corporation, which was created to develop oil found floating on water near titusville, Pennsylvania, was the pennsylvania rock oil company of conneticut ( later the seneca oil company). Pipelines early became a major consideration in standards drive to gain buisness and profits. Samuel syckel had built a four-mile pipeline from pithole,
John D. Rockefeller Senior is one of the most famous industrialists to date. His fame is well deserved, through decades of hard work that brought prosperity to the American petroleum industry. Rockefeller has been called philanthropist, "great man" 1 "industrial statesman , robber baron" , thief and other titles of both pleasant and unpleasant nature. His ways of conducting business brought him fame, fortune, and a lawsuit that broke up the Standard Oil Company. Despite these questionable business practices, John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company greatly contributed to the economy, and the well-being of the United States and its people. "The life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., was marked to an exceptional degree by silence,
John Davison Rockefeller was the founder of Standard Oil Company in 1870 and ran it until he retired in 1897. Standard Oil gained almost complete control over the oil refining market in the United States by underselling its competitors. Rockefeller and his associates owned dozens of corporations operating in just one state.
During the Gilded Age, the United States saw an increase in the power of big businesses, many of which monopolized their industries. This time period, although it appeared successful from the outside, was filled with governmental corruption. Manipulated by the robber barons of the Gilded Age, the United States government fell victim to their control. Contrary to this downfall, the nation celebrated much success in the numerous life-changing inventions attributed to this era. With the invention of the internal combustion engine, among others, there also came a major increase in the demand for oil. Entering the flourishing oil business in 1870, John D. Rockefeller created the Standard Oil Company, which later dominated the entire oil industry. Although he had years filled with success in the business, Rockefeller faced a disastrous court case that dissolved his company and years of his hard work. Despite this catastrophic event, Rockefeller found other ways to contribute his knowledge and hard-work by making innumerable philanthropic donations. After many years and countless efforts, John D. Rockefeller had one of the most outstanding and positive influences on the United States through his work in the oil industry and his philanthropic actions.
and the wealth it brought, when any other competitor tried even to step foot into the oiling industry, Rockefeller dropped his prices until the rookie industry was forced out. After he ! regained monopoly, he then jacked up the prices. Sure, the people were
John D. Rockefeller also started at humble beginnings. By taking risks and investing he found himself engulfed in the rapidly expanding oil industry. Not yet in the business directly he started his own company, The Standard Oil Company of Cleveland. Rockefeller's stake in the oil industry increased as the industry itself expanded caused by the rapidly spreading use of kerosene. The Standard Oil eventually, in a few years, purchased and controlled almost all the refining firms in Cleveland, plus two refineries
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
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.”).
The Standard Oil Trust of Ohio was and American oil producing, refining, and transporting company. It was founded in 1863 by John D. Rockefeller and lasted until 1911. During 1868, Rockefeller expanded the oil company to become the largest oil refining company in the world. In 1870, the company was renamed Standard Oil Company. After it was renamed, Rockefeller purchased most of the oil companies that were currently in business to make one large company.
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 railroad 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 his oil on their lines. Another one of Rockefellers earlier mentioned but not explained tactics was his horizontally integrated monopoly. Rockefeller used this horizontal monopoly to set prices and force his competitors to merge with him. (All with Doc. J) Document J shows that Rockefeller had his tentacles, or his influence and power around every piece of the oil industry. That, also, includes the politicians and their support.
By establishing these set shipping rates with the railroad companies, it not only made it impossible for his competitors to stay in business, but it also allowed Rockefeller to establish a strong relationship with a key method of transportation for shipping products (Biography). By establishing a strong relationship with the railroad companies, Rockefeller was able to use his successful business practice to “control over 90 percent of the nation’s oil-refining industry by 1880” (The New Tycoons). As time continued on and his business became more successful, he also applied another clever business strategy known as vertical integration. This process consisted of a company purchasing and controlling each and every step of one’s industry production process. Rockefeller’s company used this process very efficiently as they “became known to manipulate crude oil prices to drive refineries to bankruptcy, allowing him to buy them cheaply” (Epstein). By controlling each production step, he was able to minimize costs by removing any companies from the middle that were previously completing steps on the way to the finish product. Rockefeller was also known to manipulate prices of crude oil in order to drive his competing refineries into bankruptcy which allowed him to buy them cheaply (Epstein). However, his economic beliefs and ideas were not the only strategies which John Rockefeller used to elevate his business and personal profile to a national level and
The oil industry can not be discussed without mentioning the name John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller changed the business of oil distribution. In the 19th century Rockefeller began his humble beginnings with a small investment, along with two other partners, in the oil refining business. Eventually Rockefeller upset at the direction of the company bought out his partners. He was now buying into refining and developing kerosene and other petroleum-based products. He later named this company The Standard Oil Company which by 1872 nearly owned all the oil refineries in Cleveland. In 1882, Rockefeller took all his holdings and merged them into the Standard Oil Trust. Through smart business