Monopolies
Tycoons of the Gilded Age
What Is a Monopoly ?
The Tycoons of this Age
John D. Rockefeller- He was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He was a co-founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust.
Cornelius Vanderbilt- also known by the sobriquet Commodore, was an American tycoon, businessman, and philanthropist who built his wealth in railroads and shipping.
Andrew Carnegie- He was a Scottish-American industrialist who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century.
J.P. Morgan- was an American financier, banker, philanthropist and art collector who dominated the corperate industry.
What these guys would do was to take out all other competition, was they would lower prices really low so people would go to their business (putting their competition out of business). Then they would raise prices really high after they own the market in their industry.
The Good and the bad
Many monopolies/ tycoons during this time strongly supported immagration. this is because the more immagrants that came in the more workers these businesses would have to work for them. During this time american workers in these idustries woukld be paid little money, but the immagrants would take even less money than that.
Despite almost all of the tycoons being greedy and extorting people. they did do some good. Most of them were philanthropist (which means they donated money to lots of different charities, and organizations.