Short Bio

Rockefeller was born in 1839 and lived 97 years when he died in 1937. He and his wife Laura Celestia Spelman had four children. John also heavily favored the Republican party. He was a religious man and belonged to a Baptist church. In his later years he also spend a great deal of money and time in philanthropy. He also helped made some medical discoveries such as cures to hookworm and yellow fever. He was the main share holder in Standard Oil inc, a company he founded and made most of his wealth from.

Oil has been a major commodity for the last 200 years, one of the most desired commodities in the world. The main difference between the oil business back then and the oil business now is that it was just getting started, and one of the first to get aboard the oil train was John D. Rockefeller.

How did he get so rich?

In order to explain how Rockefeller made so much money we must go over what a monopoly is.

A monopoly is when a person or business controls an entire commodity or service and has no competition. Once a monopoly is in place they can charge whatever price they want for the good or service because no one else is offering that good or service, so in order to get it, you have to pay what they set the price at. And as you know, oil is a absolute necessity for many Americans now, and it also was back in the early 1900’s. After he had a certain amount of welath in the oil industry it was fairly easy for him to push everyone else out of the market by lowering prices to the point where others couldnt make a profit. While rockefeller was also making less of a profit, he could take the damage to his company and his wallet while his competitor’s could not, forcing them out of business. Rockefeller is a big reason, if not the main one that monopolies are illegal today.

“Standard Oil gradually gained almost complete control of oil refining and marketing in the United States through horizontal integration. In the kerosene industry, Standard Oil replaced the old distribution system with its own vertical system. It supplied kerosene by tank cars that brought the fuel to local markets and tank wagons then delivered to retail customers, thus bypassing the existing network of wholesale jobbers. Despite improving the quality and availability of kerosene products while greatly reducing their cost to the public (the price of kerosene dropped by nearly 80% over the life of the company), Standard Oil’s business practices created intense controversy. Standard’s most potent weapons against competitors were underselling, differential pricing, and secret transportation rebates. The firm was attacked by journalists and politicians throughout its existence, in part for these monopolistic methods, giving momentum to the anti-trust movement. By 1880, according to the New York World, Standard Oil was “the most cruel, impudent, pitiless, and grasping monopoly that ever fastened upon a country.” To the critics Rockefeller replied, “In a business so large as ours … some things are likely to be done which we cannot approve. We correct them as soon as they come to our knowledge.(Wikipedia)”

Rockefeller is important because, he is one of the most successful people to have ever lived when you are speaking in terms of net worth and money. Lots of people will admire and learn from his example so they can try to be as successful as he was. The entire oil business was changed by Rockefeller and we are still very dependent on oil many years later. Without Rockefeller the oil industry most likely would have developed at a much slower rate  and much of the technology we have now would be delayed.