Before the rise of Carnegie, JP Morgan, and John Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt would arguably become the first business tycoon in America. Growing up in a poor household, Vanderbilt would use perseverance, cleverness, and luck to grind his way into controlling the railroad and inland water trade business. Using the extremely competitive and lucrative tactic of choking off his competition in the inland water transportation, Vanderbilt was able to establish a monopoly over inland water trade early on in his career. However, after using some possible Insider knowledge, Vanderbilt began investing in railroads right before the railroad boom.
Also known as "The Commodore," Vanderbilt was widely known for controlling the New York Central Railroad. Vanderbilt's constant use of competitive business strategies allowed him to amass a fortune of over 100 million dollars, which is more than the entire US treasury at the time.
3 comments:
Definitely an interesting point that Vanderbilt could be considered the first business tycoon of America. Vanderbilt definitely exemplified the ideals in America at this time - hard work, perseverance, and creativity. However, instead of being viewed as a captain of industry, the questionable and cutthroat methods that you mentioned he used fostered a negative public opinion of Vanderbilt. I do think that one part of that is how he chose to hoard most of his wealth, although he did have a massive fortune - greater than the US treasury at the time.
It's very interesting to see that the guise of hard work and seemingly ethical practice became the legacy for many of the first self-made tycoon. While in reality, malpractice helped these prominent figures to make the large sums of money they were known for.
The theme of extinguishing competition in order to create a pure monopoly seemed very common at the time among the most successful businessmen. Today, many companies buy out competition in order to make more, but not to the degree present 150 years ago.
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