John D Rockefeller

“I have ways of making money that you know nothing of” – John D. Rockefeller

For a man who was never president nor a world-changing inventor, it is surprising to many that the name John D Rockefeller continues to echo all the way from the 19th century through to the present.  But whereas he may not have been a pivotal political figure, John D Rockefeller was one of the most important and powerful businessmen in nineteenth and early twentieth-century America and it was his vast wealth and the way that he utilized it that would cement his place in history.

Born on 8 July 1839 in Richford, New York,

John Davison Rockefeller was part of a large family, although at the time the

Rockefellers were not known for being particularly wealthy. The family moved

many times throughout John’s young life before they finally ended up in

Cleveland, Ohio.

John D Rockefeller began his forays into business at the young age of 16 when he began work as a bookkeeper, and by the time he was 20 he had already begun to enter into several business partnerships, specifically in the energy sector. Refined oil was on the rise as an energy source overtaking whale oil as the primary source of energy for heating and lighting during the middle of the 19th century.

Kerosene was superior to whale oil in many

ways, not the least of which was its ease of acquisition as it did not require long

costly sea voyages nor dangerous harvesting from an increasingly difficult to

find marine mammal. Rockefeller founded his first oil company, Standard Oil, in

1870 and after he retired as the official head of the company in 1897, he remained

its primary shareholder.

Through this new oil empire which was satisfying an ever-increasing demand from the American public for kerosene and gasoline, John D. Rockefeller became the wealthiest person in the country and perhaps even the world. At the peak of his power, John D Rockefeller controlled 90% of all oil in the United States, and Standard Oil had a near-total monopoly in refined oil products. The company also made huge technological leaps when it came to oil refinery and also made vast improvements in how such a complex corporate organisation should be structured.

Although electricity and the light bulb

replaced oil as a source of lighting in the early 20th century, the

demand for gasoline increased exponentially as the motor car became

increasingly within the grasp of the working man.  The internal combustion engine allowed those

who controlled the oil industry to not only maintain but expand their vast

wealth.

Because of his near-total monopoly on oil and his extreme wealth John D Rockefeller was able to gain significant control over the railroad industry as well as this was required to move his oil around the country. With this control and the improved efficiency with which Standard Oil could move oil around the country, Rockefeller was able to supply it more cheaply leading to an even greater increase in demand.

Like mythological King Midas, when it came to

Rockefeller even things that might at first seem disastrous ended up being

beneficial to him.  In 1911 the Supreme

Court ruled against Standard Oil for being in violation of new antitrust laws

and the company was broken up into over 30 separate entities. Some of the new

companies that were formed as a result of this are still familiar today. Brand

names such as Exxon-Mobil and Chevron are among the highest-grossing

oil-producing and distributing companies in the world.

Whilst the breakup of a company might have hurt other men,