Due to the high efficiency of Standard Oil (high quality and low prices), the company’s share of the oil products market grew from 4% in 1870 to 25% in 1874 and to about 85 per cent in 1880. All these features characterized Standard Oil as a monopoly. Was John Rockefeller’s plans to become a monopolist initially? Not really. His actions were a way to survive among aggressive competition. Not only Rockefeller turned his attention to the promising petroleum product market...
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The gilded age is a period from around 1875 to 1900 that was characterized as a time of wealth but also of greed and corruption. The word gilded means something that is covered in gold on the outside and the inside is cheap and inferior. This age is also known as the second industrial revolution where manufacturing and transporting goods became rather easy with the help of new machines. It was an age of scientific breakthrough and also technological innovation....
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Daniel Yergin starts the section by saying: ‘There was the matter of the missing $526.08.’ This missing cash was in regards to a for-pay examine risk attempted by Benjamin Silliman, Jr. in the mission for additional salary. Silliman Jr. was hard up for money when money was difficult to get, and his educator’s compensation was not meeting his needs. To fill the hole, he agreed to investigate a venture from a gather headed by George Bissell, the man who Yergin...
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I read Titan: The life of John D. Rockefeller Sr, a biography by Ron Chernow, and today I will share an important lesson I have realized through my reading of this work. Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839, in Richford, New York, and moved to Cleveland, Ohio when he was fourteen. He was a pious baptist, the oldest of three boys, and would later become the largest shareholder of Standard Oil, America’s first monopoly. Rockefeller possessed unyielding self-control and...
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In 1855, Benjamin Silliman, Jr., a professor of chemistry, fumed when he did not receive payment for the report on ‘rock oil’ he had prepared for a group of investors led by George Bissel. The test ran by the chemist proved that they could distill a superior, economical fuel for lamps, while a different process could make it useful for lubricating machinery. They formed a company for exploration. In England, entrepreneurs looked to exploit asphalt and its derivative, kerosene. By...
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John D. Rockefeller was a man who went after what he wanted. It can be said he was an effective business leader based on the things he accomplished not only for himself, but the economy as well. John owned his own oil company and then went on to create opportunity for the economy by increasing advancements in gasoline, manufacturing, and jobs. John did not gain these opportunities without dishonesty and causing struggle for many despite the benefit. It is hard...
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