Robber barons.
Who were the Richest Tycoons in America?
In the late 19th century and early 20th century there were Americans who made vast amounts of wealth,
these tycoons gained the derogatory nickname "Robber barons" because of the questionable methods
they used to acquire their fortunes and build their vast industrial empires.
Andrew Carnegie.
Steel.
Net worth: 310 billions US dollars.
Andrew Carnegie was born in poverty in Scotland and emigrated to the United States as a child.
Here he worked as a bobbin boy in a cotton factory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
he then worked as a telegraphic operator and a railroad worker.
As a railroad worker he would invest in iron and oil companies
He recognized a need to replace wooden bridges with newer steel bridges for the railroads being built across America.
Turning his focus to producing steel during the 1870s,
using the Bessemer steel making process, he would become extremely successful in the industry
and contribute to America's surpassing of Great Britain's steel output from 1890.
Later, he would form the Carnegie Steel Company.
In 1892, the Homestead strike emerged
when his company tried to lower wages and increase working hours in what were dangerous conditions.
A battle would break out in Carnegie Steel's main plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania
between workers and Pinkerton detectives, which only came to an end when 8,000 armed state militia were brought in.
He would sell the Carnegie Steel Company to JP Morgan's United States Steel Corporation in 1901,
for what was then 480 million US dollars
When Carnegie retired at 64 he devoted his life to philanthropy.
In his generosity, he funded a vast number of public libraries, universities and charities around the world
John D. Rockefeller.
Oil.
Net worth: 300 to 400 billion US dollars.
John D. Rockefeller would make his riches in the oil industry and is considered by many to be the wealthiest man in American history
At age 16 Rockefeller started off as a humble bookkeeper in Cleveland, Ohio.
In the 1860s he started investing in the petroleum industry and took over local refineries by buying them out.
At the age of 31 he started the Standard Oil Company, and at one point, a cartel was used,
an unfair practice of forcing competitors to pay extortion at shipping costs, for his company paid low prices for such services.
This would drive his competitors out of business.
By 1890, Standard Oil controlled 90% of the oil in the USA
This monopoly led to the Sherman Antitrust Act in the same year
In his later years in retirement, Rockefeller donated his wealth to philanthropic causes.
Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Water transport and railroads.
Net worth: 105 to 205 billion US dollars.
Vanderbilt was born in Staten Island, New York in 1794,
he was a son of a boatman and quit school at age 11 to work on his father's ferry.
At age 16, he purchased his own boat by borrowing money from his parents and made profit by ferrying commuters into Manhattan
During the War of 1812 he used his boats to transport supplies to forts along New York Harbor,
after this, Vanderbilt started to develop a steamship business while working for Thomas Gibbons as a steamship captain
and in 1829, he was working for himself.
He then dominated the maritime trade along the Hudson River,
offering better fares than his competitors.
The California Gold Rush of 1849
provided another opportunity, so Vanderbilt created a service called the Accessory Transit Company,
which would transport passengers in cargo through Nicaragua towards California on the West Coast.
He made an offer to his competitors, which were close to ruin,
he would end the Accessory Transit Company, which was more efficient than their transportation methods,
if he was paid a stipend of $40,000 a month, an offer they accepted
and increased when he threatened to open it again.
At 70, he moved from shipping to railroads and acquired the New York Central Railroad,
eventually he had rail lines reaching as far as Chicago.
J.P. Morgan.
Banking.
Net worth: 42 billion US dollars.
The son of a banker, John Pierpont Morgan, went to Harvard University,
and once he graduated, worked at the banking firm George Peabody and Company in London,
then became an accountant in Duncan, Sherman & Company in New York.
In 1861 he became an agent of his father's bank.
During the American Civil War he became involved in a financing scheme known as the Hall Carbine Affair
where he purchased five thousand rifles for $3.50 each from the government
and resold them back for $22 each.
In 1871, he formed the Drexel Morgan & Co. with Anthony Drexel,
which became the J.P. Morgan & Co. in 1895 after Drexel had died.
During this time, he also formed the merger General Electric.
J.P. Morgan became an important financier of the railroads across America,
and in 1901, helped form the first billion-dollar corporation in American history, the United States Steel Corporation,
a merger that included the giant Carnegie Steel Company.
While his wealth was more modest than other robber barons,
J.P. Morgan is importantly known as the person who reduced chaotic competition by merging companies to bring order to the American economy.
He would also help Wall Street get through the financial crisis known as the Panic of 1907.
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