How Did Jay Gould Become Robber Barons

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Emily Foster 3/7/15 P.6 Tombstone Essay Now worth 71 billion dollars making his way up to the top in business in his time, becoming one of the worst robber barons and, the 8th worst CEO of all time is Jay Gould. Jay Gould was born to Mary and John Gould on May 27 1836 in Roxbury, New York. Jay Gould grew up as an only child, In Jays early years he went to various public schools, but once he reached college Jay went to school at the Hobart Academy in New York. The principal of the academy helped him get a job of a bookkeeper for a blacksmith. After a year, the blacksmith offered to give him half interest in his shop which …show more content…

Whether it be his bad ways of business, or being the 9th richest man in United States history, Jay became famous for a lot more things. One thing Jay became famous for was stripping the Erie Railroad in the Erie Railroad War. The Erie Railroad War was a struggle to control the railroad between Jay Gould and his partner Daniel Drew, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. The War between the two men began when Cornelius Vanderbilt tried to regain control of the Erie Railroad. Cornelius Vanderbilt was the owner of the New York Central Railroad, he had experienced unpleasant dealings with Gould. In 1867, he launched a nasty bid to control the Erie. Gould responded by issuing thousands of new, illegal shares that inflated the line's assets to more than three times their true worth. The unsuspecting Vanderbilt was eventually thwarted and lost heavily in the process. Vanderbilt was very angry with losing to gould that he contacted the police, but not before gould and Drew were able to get the albany legislature make sure they would be safe. Gould, and Drew ended up going on their merry way. The Erie, crippled by enormous debt, would not become profitable for more than 70 years. Another event that made Jay famous was the gold corner of 1869. The gold corner of 1869 was when Jay and his other partner James Fisk plotted to further his business strategies by cornering the gold market and allowing the price of gold to drop drastically, and to cause panic …show more content…

back in the mid 1800s was the Native Americans. With Jay Gould’s ruthless business techniques, and being an owner of the Erie Railroad, Jays could cause a shaky relationship with the Indians. With Gould being in charge of the railroad he would not be kind when the Indians would want to form an agreement when the Erie Railroad was starting to go through the Indian land. Overall Gould would not have had a good relationship with the Indians causing the Indians to get angry with the