Some Of The Original Monopolists- Carnegie, Vanderbilt and Morgan

J.P. Morgan

J.P Morgan was born into the business world. From a young age, he was pushed to take an interest in the business. Instead of playing he would study accounting books. In 1857 he got his first job as a clerk in the NY bank. In 1861 he left the bank to work with his father who was now a leading American banker. J.P Morgan was a very successful banker. He always made a profit for his investors and was very trustworthy. He soon learned that whoever controlled the money controlled everything. He then came to dominate the railroads. He exchanged investment capital for a seat on the board. This was a very clever move because with a seat he held a lot of power and control over the railroads. He controlled 1/3 of American railways. Morgan reached his peak in 1907, the same year that there was an economic crisis. As much as many government officials hated Morgan because he was so wealthy and powerful, they needed his help to solve the crisis. Roosevelt asked Morgan to help solve the financial crisis, so Morgan set up a rescue fund and saved the American Economy. Even Roosevelt, who was a big trust buster and hater of monopolists, congratulated and thanked Morgan for saving the day. He did in 1914 with $80,000,000. 

Andrew Carnegie 

Andrew Carnegie came from an immigrant family. When he was 12 years old he got his first job at a textile factory. His mother had very high expectations for him and expected more from him, so he spent his free time educating himself at the library. He later got a job at a telegraph company. There he deciphered the morse code by ear- which was very difficult to do. He was then hired to be a clerk for Mr. Scott an important railroad official. When a train crashed Carnegie was able to keep all the other trains from backing up, which impressed Mr. Scott. Because of this Scott made Carnegie his protege. Carnegie was able to make 10s of thousands of dollars in investments through insider trading (this is now illegal). In the 1870s the industry shifted from iron to steel and in 1875  Carnegie opened his first steel plant. Right from the beginning, he tried to take control of the entire industry. in 1901, at the peak of his power, Andrew Carnegie sold Carnegie Steel to J.P. Morgan for 480 million dollars. He became the richest man in the world at the age of 65. He decided he did not want to die rich and ended up donating 90% f his money to charity. There are now over 3000 Carnegie libraries around the world.

The Vanderbilts

William Henry Vanderbilt is known for developing the Staton Island ferry system. Vanderbilt gained his success by first transporting people for free across the sea. Although he was losing money he was losing less money than his competitors who offered free fair on their bigger ships. People paid Vanderbilt $150,000 not to work on certain shipping routes, but he regained control over these routes within a year, putting his rivals out of business. He became the most powerful man in the steamboat industry. By the time he was 70, he had enough money to retire. He ended up sealing his steamship company and investing in the railroad. He was one of the first railroad owners to envision a network. He managed the railroads just as efficiently as he had managed the steamboats.  BY 1870 his railroad was over 700 miles, the longest railroad in the world. He died in 1877 with over 100 million dollars, money than the U.S. government had.