John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller is one of the most famous names in American business, finance, and philanthropy. Rockefeller is known for making his fortune in the oil business. He was actually the world's richest man at one time. This paper will discuss his background, how he accumulated his wealth and his generosity to society.

Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York in 1839, the son of a peddler. At the age of 14, Rockefeller's parents moved to Ohio. While living in Cleveland, Rockefeller went to school but never continued on to college. Even as a boy in Cleveland, Rockefeller was systematic and well organized. Rockefeller's father sold medicines to patients and traveled a lot, leaving John in charge of the family far before he was grown up enough to handle it. Rockefeller started to work at the age of 16 as a clerk in a small produce firm. After that he formed a partnership in a grain commission house.

Cleveland was a good place to organize "something big" in the oil business. There were two major east-west railroads in Cleveland. Also, Cleveland was on Lake Erie which was big enough for large ships to harbor. This made it possible to transport the oil easily. Rockefeller was determined to make Cleveland the center of oil business. Before he was able to accomplish this feat, he would eventually create the largest oil company in the world in Cleveland, titled "Standard Oil."

Starting with a small sum of money Rockefeller bought a small oil refinery in Cleveland. He then bought up other refineries in Cleveland and oil wells in Pennsylvania as well. As result of Rockefeller's efforts taking over the oil industry, other oilmen went out of business. Consequently, the railroads that carried the oil needed Rockefeller's freight more than ever. Rockefeller was a very intelligent business man. He arranged for two very big railroads passing through Cleveland to compete for his large business. He did this by bargaining and threatening one or the other railroad, telling them that he might give all of his business to the other. This method worked. He finally forced the railroads to charge him lower prices than they charged anybody else. By confidential dealings he pretended to pay the regular rates. Then later the railroads gave him back a "rebate," which was a refund on each barrel of his oil that they had hauled. Shortly, they even gave him rebates on what opposing oil companies shipped.

After he perfected these tactics, he went to the small refineries in other parts of the country, and asked them to sell their companies to him. He would say, "If you don't sell your property it will be valueless, because we have advantages with the railroads." Rockefeller would then offer them a much lower price for the refinery then the owners thought it was worth. Still the refineries would sell because they knew the mass power that Rockefeller had and how he could put them out of business easily.

After a while it became cheaper to pump oil through pipe lines instead of packaging it in barrels. As a result, Rockefeller created his own pipe line. Rockefeller's great business in the oil industry had even reached around the world. For example, in China "Standard Oil" sold millions of inexpensive oil lamps and then sold the oil to fill them with. As time passed on people all over the world were using oil from American wells. Now Americans could afford a lamp in every room, and they did not have to go to bed at sunset anymore.

By the 1900s, little did Rockefeller know that the whole nation would be moving on wheels. The car was invented, then petroleum was refined into gasoline and used as fuel for the cars. All this made it possible for cars to move as they do today. Consequently Rockefeller's company continued to grow.

Although Rockefeller could be ruthless in business, he was generous contributing to society. Even while he was still struggling to make his way he gave one-tenth of his profits to charities and Baptist churches. Before his death in 1937, Rockefeller gave away well over 500 million dollars. Most of the money went to foundations and organizations. Some of the more well known foundations that he created are the Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller Institute, the General Education Board, and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial.

Today the Rockefeller name lives on through the institutions he founded. John D. Rockefeller started with very little, amassed a fortune, and then gave back to the country that made it possible for him to be so successful.