John_Rockefeller

John Rockefeller HIS 125 John Rockefeller John Rockefeller was an oil tycoon, industrialist and philanthropist who was born on July 8, 1839 in Richford, New York. He grew up on a farm in Tioga County, New York as the second of six children. In 1853, John Rockefeller and his family moved from New York to Cleveland, Ohio. Two years later he graduated high school and began a business course. The course was supposed to be completed in six months, but he managed to complete it in three months. After completing the business course, he got a job as an assistant bookkeeper with the firm Hewitt and Turtle, a small firm of commission merchants and produce shippers. After being there for several months he attained the position of cashier and bookkeeper. In 1859 Rockefeller became a partner in a produce business and four years later with his partners he established an oil refinery [ (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 1, 2011) ]. Within two years it was the largest refinery in the area, after that Rockefeller devoted himself to the oil industry. In 1870, Rockefeller and a few associates started Standard Oil Company in Ohio which started buying out their competitors and quickly became a monopoly. Rockefeller enforced strict economy and efficiency, through mergers and agreements with competitors, by ruthlessly crushing weaker competitors, and by accumulating large capital reserves, he soon dominated the market of the oil refining industry. In 1881 Rockefeller and his associates placed the stock of Standard of Ohio under the control of nine trustees, with Rockefeller at the head [ (Biography.com, 2011) ]. By placing the stock under the control of the trustees, they thereby created the first major US “trust” and set a pattern of organization for other monopolies. The aggressive competitive practices of Standard Oil, which many regarded ruthless, and the growing public hostility toward monopolies, of which Standard was the best known, caused some industrialized states to enact antimonopoly laws and led to the passage by the US Congress of the Sherman Act of 1890 [ (Britannica Biographies, 2010) ]. In 1892 the Ohio Supreme Court found that Standard Oil trust was a monopoly that was in violation of the Ohio law prohibiting monopolies. Rockefeller evaded the decision by dissolving the trust and transferring the properties to other companies in other states with interlocking directorates so that the same nine men controlled the operations of the affiliated companies. The effects of business in the late nineteenth century were profound. They changed the way that almost everyone did business. It went from local mom and pop businesses that wanted to supply their local communities to large businesses that wanted to make money off of the people of the United States. The positive effects of business in the late nineteenth century were by having such a large business they were able to buy products at prices that were way less than competitors that were smaller, which made them able to price them that were much more affordable than anyone else that were selling the same products. Also because of Rockefeller and other businessman like him, the United States was ranked as the highest standard of living. The negative effects of business in the late nineteenth century were that small businesses were driven out of business and large trusts and corporations had control over the government, dangerous working conditions and low wages for employees. While prices for products may have been more competitive, many people had to work for wages that were lower than they had worked for before. John Rockefeller and Standard Oil positively affected society by making the market more competitive than it was before, he had a part in creating the University of Chicago, the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission, the General Education Board which later became the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. John Rockefeller was a philanthropist to the end. The negative effects of John Rockefeller and Standard Oil were that they singlehandedly pushed many businesses out of business by being so competitive, they also had some control of the government at the time, and drove wages lower. The pros and cons of big business in the nineteenth century do still exist in some ways. There are many businesses that still have their hands controlling some parts of the government. Big business also affects the employees and consumers in big ways. They control the prices of the products and services that they sell but they also control the wages of their employees by making them as low as they can. References Biography.com. (2011, November 11). John D. Rockefeller. Retrieved November 11, 2011, from Biography.com: http://www.biography.com/people/john-d-rockefeller-9461341 Britannica Biographies. (2010, October 1). Rockefeller, John D. . Ipswich, Massachusetts, United States of America. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 1. (2011, November 8). John Davison Rockefeller. Ipswich, Massachusetts, United States of America.