Compare And Contrast Vanderbilt And Rockefeller

Vanderbilt and Rockefeller both transformed the country. Both men had huge impacts on the country and how they transformed the industry of America. Vanderbilt started his business at the age of 16 where he bought his first ferry with a loan of 100 dollars he was a hard and smart businessman \which made him 40 years later have the largest shipping company in the world. Seeing that railroads were being built and knowing they were gonna change how goods will be shipped forever he sold all his ships and invested everything into the railroad business. Which payed off then tragedy struck him when his favorite and smartest son died in the civil war. Had to teach his other son how to run the business. Other railroad companies thinking him old and weak tried to hustle him and manipulate him. He played them and closed the only railroad bridge into new york city which he owned.

He then started building his empire even larger buying other railroads

Using this profit he buys out every other refinery company all his rivals. At the age 33 he is the most powerful man in the country. Vanderbilt seeing this gets another railroad to pull all their contracts with rockefeller and make him pay more rates rockefeller seeing this finds out he can use pipelines for large distance transportation taking the railroads out of the business.

This causes the stock exchange to close causing the first nationwide depression causing many workers to lose jobs. Rockefeller then buys the remaining portion of his competition for very low prices owning 98% of all oil refineries. At the end of the depression vanderbilt died at the age of 82 and left all his business to his son. Rockefeller knows that vanderbilt made him into the man he is. Vanderbilt then shut down any other competition that tired to go against him resulting him in being worth 225 billion dollars in today's