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This investigation will scrutinize the question: To what extent did antitrust laws affect John D. Rockefeller’s company- Standard Oil? To analyze the effectiveness of the antitrust laws, the investigation will focus on the government policies and execution of said policies during the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era (1870-1920). The first source is a cartoon drawn by Horace Taylor for the September 25, 1899 issue of The Verdict named “What a Funny Little Government”. By 1890, Standard Oil dominated 90 percent of the oil industry, thus the publication date strengthens the value of the cartoon itself, since the close proximity enables for the cartoon to capture the perception of the cartoonist as well as the general public.
After the civil war the number of factories increased, and so did the competition between businessmen. During the year 1879 trusts were developed and trusts operated all the companies and just paid profits to the stockholders. John D. Rockefeller was one of the first to form a trust in the oil industry. The creation of the sugar, steel, and the whisky trust were established because of the successfulness of the standard oil company.
The Men who Built America impacted the lifestyle of many Average Americans. These men were great, but also not so great. There were Rubber Barons and Captains of Industry in this time. A Captain of Industry is someone who’s fortune positively impacted the lives of those around them. On the the hand, a Robber Baron was a person who has a big fortune by using selfish behavior and using others to grow their riches.
With Standard Oil being the leading oil company, this limits other oil companies to sales because Standard Oil had the rights to many companies to produce and sell oil leaving very few businesses that other oil companies could sell to. This puts the little companies into a decrease in sales while Standard Oil makes a huge increase in sales. Small businesses worry about becoming bankrupt while Rockefeller becomes wealthy. Rockefeller was the reason why there were limits to big businesses because he was in control with oil companies not allowing others to succeed as
In the 1870’s oil prices where unstable and the production was always different. Rockefeller approached the owner of Cleveland's largest oil refinery owner and proposed they unite their companies. This would hopefully level prices and even production. The companies united as the Stand Oil Company. Rockefeller expand the influence of Standard Oil during the 1870’s and 1880’s.
Not long after his first company took off, in 1870, he created Standard Oil Co., which was a combination of a few of the other businesses he had started. Rockefeller used refineries to extract oil, rather than some of his competitors who preferred to use oil rigs. What truly helped Rockefeller rise above his competitors was actually undercutting their prices, and even offering money to railroad companies to only ship materials to him, which caused his competitors’ businesses to go bankrupt. He used a business tactic called the trust, where he took shares in other companies, offering the owners a place on the board of directors and dividends in the company. This tactic gave Rockefeller more control over his competitors’ businesses, which affected everyone else negatively.
I believe that the government should break up Standard Oil’s Monopoly for the following reasons; First because John D. Rockefeller's acts are corrupt, secondly because it led business to bankruptcy and lastly because it could be considered as illegal business. For these reasons I believe that the government should break up Standard Oil’s Monopoly. John D. Rockefeller along with his brother created the Standard Oil Company, and became one of the world’s wealthiest men. In 1870, he established Standard Oil. It controlled 90% of the Country's refineries.
Also for the longest time Rockefeller had a monopoly over oil. Rockefeller produced oil, called Standard il. Since nobody else could figure it out they had to only buy from him. So he could make oil as expensive as he wanted. The il he prduced made light everyone needs light, so pf course he got a ton of business.
The first enterprise Rockefeller started focused on hay, grains, meats, and other goods and was founded in 1853. He founded the Standard Oil Company in 1863, which grew exponentially. Rockefeller was incredibly competitive, and actively worked towards running competing companies out of business. Rockefeller owned iron mines and timberland and invested in numerous companies in manufacturing, transportation, and other industries.
Rockefeller, who created a monopoly over the American oil industry. Starting in 1859, with the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania, Rockefeller saw possibilities of a new oil industry rising in the United States. He created the Standard Oil Company in 1870, running an efficient company and controlling all aspects of the oil production. Rockefeller then started to eliminate all prospects of competition, creating a monopoly ten years after his company had been built. To achieve the amount of success that Rockefeller was able to attain, many have claimed that Rockefeller truly was a robber baron with his actions of deceit and illegal activity.
John D. Rockefeller Sr: How did John D. Rockefeller impact the Industrial Revolution John Davison Rockefeller Sr. once stated “If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success” (John D. Rockefeller Quotes). John D. Rockefeller was the founder of Standard Oil in which then became one of the wealthiest men in the world. Rockefellers ongoing funding as a philanthropist and trust in oil is how the man's name still lives on to this day (The Rockefeller Archive Center). For thousands of years oil has been a main resource for human consumption, and remains the same.
John Rockefeller may be known as the most hated businessmen of all time, however, his success was well known due to his skills as a business administrator helped him eliminate inefficiencies within the industry. He thought that the key to beat competition was through efficiency and attention to detail. His tactics were to secure the lowest shipping rates from railroads, lowered prices to cut out competitors which then he bought them out, increase efficiency, and utilized all waste. The goal with standard oil was to control and calm a very chaotic oil business. He then ended up buying the majority of the refineries around Cleveland and then take apart the bad ones and upgrades the better ones to his standards.
Big business leaders were “captains of industry”, “shrewd businessmen,” and “robber barons.” The big business leaders used technological evolution to create massive industries that made them some of the wealthiest United States citizens of the time. The three men who were the Giants of Industry and innovation were the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, and business financier J. P. Morgan. All three men were businessmen who developed their respective businesses to an extraordinary scale and scope that is unfathomable (OpenStax, 2019). Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan’s companies greatly influenced the growth of the economy and changed the way of life for all
Then in 1904 the individual parts were combined as a book, The History of the Standard Oil Company(Allegheny College).”To know every detail of the oil trade, to be able to reach at any moment its remotest point, to control even its weakest factor—this was John D. Rockefeller’s ideal of doing business. It seemed to be an intellectual necessity for him to be able to direct the course of any particular gallon of oil from the moment it gushed from the earth until it went into the lamp of a housewife. There must be nothing—nothing in his great machine he did not know to be working right…”(Tarbell). The book attracted the public eye, and eventually the government’s. Consequently in 1911 The U.S Supreme
Rockefeller: The Captain of Industry that has helped our country thrive “The best philanthropy” he wrote, is constantly in search of finalities- a search for a cause an attempt to cure evils at their source” - John D. Rockefeller John D. Rockefeller was the richest man of his time but, used his wealth to improve our country. Rockefeller entered the fledgling Oil industry in 1863, by investing in a factory in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1870 Rockefeller established the Standard Oil Company. With the establishment of the oil company Rockefeller controlled 90% of the oil business in America by 1880.
