Robber Barons: Captains Of Industry During The Gilded Age

During the post-Civil War period, an era commonly referred to as the Gilded Age, the United States faced a rapid expansion of industrialization and simultaneous economic growth. Despite the comprehensive surge of economic production, this period was also an era of abject poverty and inequality as wealth became highly concentrated. The development of industry was driven by a small number of capitalists who have been portrayed as either ingenious and industrious leaders who transformed the American economy, or as avaricious and callous businessmen who would neglect the conditions of his/her workers and competitors to accumulate wealth. The labeling of such capitalists as either captains of industry or robber barons, or both, purely mirrors the

Although the majority of capitalists considered captains of industry have given back to the greater good in some way or another through philanthropic acts such as the increase in productivity, expansion of markets, and/or provision of more jobs, in turn he/she can also be recognized as robber barons due to his/her utilization of unjustifiable and greed-driven tactics to gain an edge over, and eventually eradicate, his/her competition. The characterization of the majority of industrialists as robber barons is not justifiable due to the fact that a number of these leaders were also very philanthropic and can be described as both a captain of industry and/or a robber baron. John D. Rockefeller, an American business magnate and philanthropist, was the co-founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry in the late nineteenth century. Rockefeller utilized unjustifiable tactics such as rebates, drawbacks, and horizontal integration to grow his business and overwhelm his competitors and could thus easily lower commercial prices because of the unfair advantage that he had gained. With that being said, Rockefeller pushed railroads to give him the lowest possible rates and ruthlessly searched

Carnegie used the tactic of vertical integration to gain control of anything related to the production of steel, including railroads and iron mines, in order to reduce his costs and produce steel cheaper. Although this is a tactic related to the idea of social darwinism, compared to horizontal integration used by Rockefeller, it is a fair way to gain an advantage over one’s competitors. In his essay, Wealth, Carnegie strongly supports the impact of social darwinism stating that “it insures the survival of the fittest” in every aspect of industry (Doc 3). His support for social darwinist tactics is demonstrated through his rise to industrial power, but is also combatted through his attention to philanthropy. Andrew Carnegie stated that the wealthy have responsibility to give back to society through donations to libraries, universities, and other intellectual institutes which is fulfilled in the later years of his reign when he sold his company to rival J.P. Morgan and used his fortune for the greater good. Fond of saying that "the man who dies rich dies disgraced," Carnegie turned his attention to