jd rockefeller essay

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John D. Rockefeller

By: History.com Editors

Updated: December 19, 2023 | Original: April 9, 2010

John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937), founder of the Standard Oil Company, became one of the world’s wealthiest men and a major philanthropist. Born into modest circumstances in upstate New York, he entered the then-fledgling oil business in 1863 by investing in a Cleveland, Ohio refinery. In 1870, he established Standard Oil, which by the early 1880s controlled some 90 percent of U.S. refineries and pipelines. Critics accused Rockefeller of engaging in unethical practices, such as predatory pricing and colluding with railroads to eliminate his competitors in order to gain a monopoly in the industry. In 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court found Standard Oil in violation of anti-trust laws and ordered it to dissolve. During his life Rockefeller donated more than $500 million to various philanthropic causes.

John D. Rockefeller: Early Years and Family

John Davison Rockefeller, the son of a traveling salesman, was born on July 8, 1839, in Richford, New York . Industrious even as a boy, the future oil magnate earned money by raising turkeys, selling candy and doing jobs for neighbors. In 1853, the Rockefeller family moved to the Cleveland, Ohio , area, where John attended high school before briefly studied bookkeeping at a commercial college.

Did you know? One of the charitable organizations established by John D. Rockefeller, Sr. was the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission, founded in 1909. Less than 20 years after its creation, the Commission had achieved its primary goals, the successful eradication of hookworm disease across the southern United States.

In 1855, at age 16, he found work as an office clerk at a Cleveland commission firm that bought, sold and shipped grain, coal and other commodities. (He considered September 26, the day he started the position and entered the business world, so significant that as an adult he commemorated this “job day” with an annual celebration.) In 1859, Rockefeller and a partner established their own commission firm. That same year, America’s first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania . In 1863, Rockefeller and several partners entered the booming new oil industry by investing in a Cleveland refinery.

In 1864, Rockefeller married Laura Celestia “Cettie” Spelman (1839-1915), an Ohio native whose father was a prosperous merchant, politician and abolitionist active in the Underground Railroad . (Laura Rockefeller became the namesake of Spelman College, the historically black women’s college in Atlanta, Georgia , that her husband helped finance.) The Rockefellers went on to have five children, four daughters (three of whom survived to adulthood) and one son: John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Edith Rockefeller McCormick, Elizabeth Rockefeller Strong, Alta Rockefeller Prentice and Alice Rockefeller, who died when she was 13 months old.

John D. Rockefeller: Standard Oil

In 1865, Rockefeller borrowed money to buy out some of his partners and take control of the refinery, which had become the largest in Cleveland. Over the next few years, he acquired new partners and expanded his business interests in the growing oil industry. At the time, kerosene, derived from petroleum and used in lamps, was becoming an economic staple. In 1870, Rockefeller formed the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, along with his younger brother William (1841-1922), Henry Flagler (1830-1913) and a group of other men. John Rockefeller was its president and largest shareholder.

Standard Oil gained a monopoly in the oil industry by buying rival refineries and developing companies for distributing and marketing its products around the globe. In 1882, these various companies were combined into the Standard Oil Trust, which would control some 90 percent of the nation’s refineries and pipelines. In order to exploit economies of scale, Standard Oil did everything from build its own oil barrels to employ scientists to figure out new uses for petroleum by-products.

Rockefeller’s enormous wealth and success made him a target of muckraking journalists, reform politicians and others who viewed him as a symbol of corporate greed and criticized the methods with which he’d built his empire. As The New York Times reported in 1937: “He was accused of crushing out competition, getting rich on rebates from railroads, bribing men to spy on competing companies, of making secret agreements, of coercing rivals to join the Standard Oil Company under threat of being forced out of business, building up enormous fortunes on the ruins of other men, and so on.”

In 1890, the U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, the first federal legislation prohibiting trusts and combinations that restrained trade. Two years later, the Ohio Supreme Court dissolved the Standard Oil Trust; however, the businesses within the trust soon became part of Standard Oil of New Jersey , which functioned as a holding company. In 1911, after years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Standard Oil of New Jersey was in violation of anti-trust laws and forced it to dismantle (it was broken up into more than 30 individual companies).

John D. Rockefeller: Philanthropy and Final Years

Rockefeller retired from day-to-day business operations of Standard Oil in the mid-1890s. Inspired in part by fellow Gilded Age tycoon Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), who made a vast fortune in the steel industry then became a philanthropist and gave away the bulk of his money, Rockefeller donated more than half a billion dollars to various educational, religious and scientific causes through the Rockefeller Foundation. Among his activities, he funded the establishment of the University of Chicago and the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University).

In his personal life, Rockefeller was devoutly religious, a temperance advocate and an avid golfer. His goal was to reach the age of 100; however, he died at 97 on May 23, 1937, at The Casements, his winter home in Ormond Beach, Florida . (Rockefeller owned multiple residences, including a home in New York City , an estate in Lakewood, New Jersey and an estate called Kykuit, old Dutch for “lookout,” set on 3,000 acres near Tarrytown, New York.) He was buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.

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John D. Rockefeller – Standard Oil Monopoly Argumentative Essay

Introduction, the six unethical practices of john d. rockefeller, the net worth of john d rockefeller and carlos slim helú, works cited.

John D. Rockefeller made one of the most influential decisions of monopolizing the petroleum industry. John D. Rockefeller was born at Richford in New York in 1839. He lived a humble life and while still young, he used to sell candy. Additionally, he could make money by giving the neighbors loans.

At around the age of sixteen years, he was employed as a bookkeeper receiving fifty cents in a day (Gunderman and Gregory 1). In 1859, he collaborated with Maurice B. Clark and started a wholesale business followed by an oil refinery after including Samuel Andrews in the business.

As the demand for oil increased, Rockefeller bought the refinery from his partners after borrowing money. Later, he bought as well as build other oil companies. In 1870, John D. Rockefeller collaborated with his brother and established the Standard Oil Company at Ohio.

Standard Oil Company gave John D. Rockefeller the strength of driving away other owners of refineries by procuring their business premises (Baylor 1). At around 1880, the Standard Oil Company was refining approximately ninety percent of the United States oil.

The company controlled all the oil refining processes and marketing procedures in the United States. As a result, John D. Rockefeller had a strong influence on the quality of oil products produced and the market price. In 1890, John D. Rockefeller retired as the president of the company and Theodore replaced him.

During the reign of Theodore, he initiated antitrust actions, which led to the collapse of Standard Oil Company into other small companies. According to Gunderman and Gregory, John D. Rockefeller survived in the business environment because of monopoly (1).

Monopoly is a Greek word meaning alone or single. Monopoly exists when a particular business enterprise is the only supplier of a specific commodity (Baylor 1). The characteristic of monopoly is absence of competition to produce that commodity and a viable alternative product.

As a result, monopoly has a significant market power and it usually control the prices of commodities. For instance, monopoly can increase the profit margin by producing goods in small quantities and selling them at higher prizes.

Standard Oil Company was a monopoly. John D. Rockefeller used unethical business practices to monopolize Standard Oil Company.

Reducing the Prices of Oil and Its Products

John D. Rockefeller reduced the prices of oil and its products temporarily (Baylor 4). His competitors could not keep up with the reduced prices because they had not planned for the same.

As a result, most of the business people who were dealing with oil and oil products ventured in to other types of enterprises. Those who could not survive in the competitive business environment sold their enterprises to Standard Oil Company.

The lower prices of oil attracted many consumers, hence, Standard Oil Company managed to establish a strong customer base. According to the theory of economics, low prices more often than not reduce the profit margin of a business and can even make it collapse.

John D. Rockefeller was not interested in the profit, but in monopolizing Standard Oil Company by driving away his competitors. He managed to stabilize Standard Oil Company at the expense of the profit. F

or instance, between 1880 and 1890, the price of processing raw oil dropped by one cent while that of refined oil by twenty six cents per gallon (Baylor 3).

By cutting down the prices of oil, John D. Rockefeller did not only win local consumers but also the international traders. Baylor stated that, in order for the Standard Oil Company to compete with the Russian Oil in the Asian and European Countries, John D Rockefeller subsidized the foreign prices of oil (5).

Additionally, he supplied free products in order to establish a universal customer base. For instance, in 1870, Standard Oil Company supplied kerosene lamps to the interior parts of the globe and taught people how to use them.

Procuring the Components Required Making Oil Barrels

John D. Rockefeller purchased the components required to make oil barrels and as a result, his competitors were unable to transport their oil to the consumers (Baylor 3). This is because his competitors could not change the raw oil into refined products that the customers can consume.

Thus, Standard Oil Company was the major supplier of refined oil products and it gained fame all over the world.

With time, Standard Oil Company started producing barrels and selling them at a reduced price in order to attract many consumers (Baylor 3).

For instance, John D Rockefeller was selling a barrel at one point five dollar while external suppliers were distributing at a price of two point five. This difference of one dollar facilitated the monopoly of Standard Oil Company because it attracted many consumers.

Secret Deals with Railroad

The major advantage of Standard Oil Company was its ability to get reduced rates from the railroads. John D. Rockefeller used the fame and prestige of Standard Oil Company to form an alliance with railroads, which gave it rebates in privacy (Baylor 4). Hence, the railroads reduced the shipping charges of Standard Oil Company.

The reduced prices enabled the standard oil company to compete effectively with other business enterprises that were charged high rates for the shipping. Some business enterprises could not cope up with the competition and they allowed the Standard oil to be a monopoly.

John D Rockefeller secured special considerations from railroads via giving them some amounts of oil. For example, John D. Rockefeller used to give railroads sixty carloads of oil every day in favor of shipment from other oil businesses (Baylor 3).

Railroads could carry oil from Standard Oil Company only instead of collecting supplementary products from other oil refinery companies. As a result, Standard Oil Company dominated the market by interfering with the supply chain management of other small refinery companies.

John D. Rockefeller won his railroads consumers by building an oil loading facility next to the train station, renting his oil tanker and taking responsibility for any accident on a property that belonged to railroad (Baylor 4).

This allowed Standard Oil Company outdo Pittsburgh Refineries because they could not receive any discount from railroads. Therefore, standard Oil Company managed to monopolize the market by maintaining reduced prices.

Buying Competitors Secretly

Gunderman and Gregory stated that John D. Rockefeller borrowed money and bought other oil refinery companies in secret (2). He then sent some of the workers from the procured company to find out the business deals of other oil refinery companies.

John D. Rockefeller used the report of the findings to take caution against a competitive business deal. For instance, if an oil company plans to reduce the price of oil products, Standard Oil Company would lower their prices further.

Some competitors that John D. Rockefeller had bought established oil companies and other refineries joined them. The aforementioned business development created competition with the Standard Oil Company.

As a result, John D. Rockefeller secretly hired the managers of the competitors companies and gave them high pay so that they do not produce any oil product (Baylor 2).

The refineries that produced small amount of oil maintained an expensive skeleton team. Standard Oil Company acquired approximately ninety percent of the refining industries.

In order to facilitate monopoly, John D. Rockefeller secretly bought dominating oil refinery companies but did not change their names to standard oil company.

For instance, Baylor stated that John D. Rockefeller bought Creek Oil Company in Pennsylvania but he did not change the name to Standard Oil Company (5). As a result, the workers of Standard Oil Company and Creek Oil worked collaboratively.

The sales of Standard Oil increased because customers who were against the company were still buying the oil because they thought it belonged to Creek Oil Company.

Buying or Creating Other Companies That Sell Oil Related Products

John D Rockefeller created companies that sell oil related products like pipelines as well as engineering firms that operated independently but gave Standard Oil Company rebates.

In 1879, Standard Oil Company became a monopoly in the oil transport industry after John D. Rockefeller created an oil pipeline company (Baylor 3). Although Tidewater Pipe Line Company tried to compete with Standard Oil, it did not succeed.

This is because John D. Rockefeller bought an exclusive chatter to construct its industry where Tidewater Company had planned to build one. As a result, Tidewater Company entered into an agreement with the Standard Oil Company so that they could survive in the competitive business environment.

Since Standard Oil Company had control over the market, it restricted the pipeline business activities of Tidewaters to eleven point five percent and retained the remaining percentage.

Standard Oil Company managed to form secret collaboration with the South Improvement Company. Thus, South Improvement Company proposed the secret cartels of the Standard Oil Company and gave them rebates while raising the charges for the other refineries industries (Baylor 2).

On the other hand, the South Improvement Company used to get rebates from other oil refinery industries as well as information about the prices of their products. John D. Rockefeller would be given the abovementioned information and he was able to regulate the oil prices and underpin his competitors.

Moreover, Standard Oil Company used to ship their barrel on the Standard Oil Company railroad in exchange of a discount of forty cents per barrel. As people became aware of the dirty games of John D. Rockefeller in the oil industry, he had already acquired twenty two out of twenty six of his competitors in Cleveland.

Use of Thugs

John D. Rockefeller used thugs to coerce competitors who could not be persuaded to collaborate with him. Ida Tarbell, an European competitor tried to attack Standard Oil Company by arraigning the impact of John D. Rockefeller on other oil refinery companies.

When John D. Rockefeller realized the mission of Tarbell, he tried to engage him in an agreement. Tarbell refused and John D. Rockefeller send the owners of small refinery companies to destroy his oil pump and well by burning or smashing them (Baylor 3).

The aforementioned tactic ensured that standard Oil Company remained a monopoly.

John D Rockefeller net worth was six hundred and sixty three point four billion dollars as of February (Ash 171). He got his money from oil businesses. He operated standard oil company for twenty seven years before retiring in i897. He is the founder of Rockefeller and Chicago universities.

He was generous and supported tertiary institutions like Harvard, Yale and Columbia.John D. Rockefeller founded the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research and the Education Board in order to increase the opportunity of people to learn. He was a philanthropist.

Carlos Slim Helú is the richest person in the world with a net worth of sixty nine billion dollars (Ash 171). He gets his money from his telecommunication, retail and mining business enterprises. Some of them include Conglomerate, Telmex and Grupo Carso. He is the chief executive of Telmex.

Every one dollar that each person in Mexico spent, twenty cents belongs to Helú. It is predicted that in the next five year, the net worth of Helú will increase by approximately thirty billion dollars if he maintain the same race.

John D. Rockefeller made one of the most influential decisions of monopolizing the petroleum industry. He used unethical business practices to monopolize the Standard Oil Company.

On the other hand, he was generous and made sure that he donated ten percent of his dues every month. He is the richest man that has ever lived with a net worth of sixty three point four billion dollars as of February.

Ash, Russell. Top Ten of Everything. Oxford: Oxford Publishers, 2006. Print.

Baylor, Christopher. “The Life of John D. Rockefeller.” Education Humanities 3.4 (2001): 1-6. Print.

Gunderman, Richard and Matthews Gregory. “Educating Leaders: Insight fron John D. Rockefeller.” Academic Radiology 1.1 (2012): 1-3. Print.

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Essays on John D. Rockefeller

Free essays on John D. Rockefeller provide an in-depth analysis of the life and accomplishments of one of America’s most powerful and controversial business tycoons. These essays explore the success of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, his philanthropic efforts, and his impact on the American economy. Readers can gain a comprehensive understanding of Rockefeller’s business practices, including his monopolistic tendencies, and his influence on the political and economic landscape of the early 20th century. These essays offer critical analysis and historical context to help readers form their own opinions on this captivating figure of American history.

Home / Essay Samples / Business / Rockefeller / John D. Rockefeller And His Controversial Reputation

John D. Rockefeller And His Controversial Reputation

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• Olien, Diana Davids, and Roger M. Olien. “Why Big Bad Oil?” OAH Magazine of History, vol. 11, no. 1, 1996, pp. 22–27. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25163113.
• Montague, Gilbert Holland. “The Legend of the Standard Oil Company.” The North American Review, vol. 181, no. 586, 1905, pp. 352–368. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25105452.
• Fisher, Donald. Isis, vol. 105, no. 4, 2014, pp. 862–863. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/680294.
• McKay, Brett. 'John D. Rockefeller's Keys To Success | The Art Of Manliness'. The Art Of Manliness, 2018, https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/john-rockefellers-keys-to-success/.

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