Entrepreneurs in the 1800’s - Rockefeller & Carnegie

 Entrepreneurs in the 1800’s

Ever since the United States was founded, people have always worked hard to make business processes and daily lives easier and more efficient. During the 1800’s there was no exception. In fact, many big time entrepreneurs including Rockefeller, Carnegie, and others were able to put efficiency and success to a whole new level. The techniques they used were able to put their businesses on the top, and soon create some of the most successful businesses in America’s history. All of these men had one thing in common through their work as entrepreneurs, and that was their ability to take unique paths to success. Looking back on these revolutionary business techniques is able to help historians understand the economy of the 1800’s as well as how their unique paths lead to our business techniques to this day.

            The first skill the big time entrepreneurs shared was the ability to find and revolutionize the needs of our country. For example, as the country was expanding the increase in steel usage and oil, both Carnegie and Rockefeller realized how necessary it was to take on the challenge of producing better ways to fit the growing demand. As we see, looking back at the success of their corporations, they were able to do just this. Through their years as businessmen each of them were able to control the main oil and steel productions, and with it make millions of dollars. The rich men were smart in that they were able to locate a major need in our country, and once fulfilling it, build extremely strong businesses.

            The big time entrepreneurs also used extremely well thought out business tactics to put their company on the top of the economy. Some of the ways they did this was through vertical and horizontal integration, and trusts. Not only were these techniques able to make their process extremely efficient, but also put them in position to knock out competing businesses as well. Carnegie in particular was able to incorporate vertical and horizontal integration very well. The vertical integration work Carnegie did made his steel company grow more efficient which helped him raise profits significantly. First he created many sub-divisions of his business that were all needed for the process of making steel. Once he had these, he was able to produce massive quantities of steel at a faster rate and smaller cost. His ability to lower prices drove competing businesses bankrupt. He also used horizontal integration to remove competing businessmen by adding them into his ever growing steel company. These moves gave Carnegie a major boost above competitors. Like Carnegie, Rockefeller also had some tricks to help his oil company blossom. One huge business move on his part was the creation of his Standard Oil Trust. The trust he created was able to control almost all oil production, and drive out competing companies. Once a monopoly was put into place, Rockefeller used his trust to become an extremely wealthy man. 

The third way many business people were able to grow during the 1800’s was through innovation. Just like all moments in history, innovation is sometimes the best way to move ahead. The products that came out in the 19^th century made life simpler and more efficient. From the railroads to the telephone, inventions that revolutionized the early American industries played a big part in forming some of the inventions of today. Once the minds of American inventers started rolling, there was no stopping their creations.

As you can see, hard work, dedication, and smart thinking were a few of the great abilities of American entrepreneurs in the 19^th century. The work of these businessmen led to huge success, especially the companies that could maximize their efficiency. Today, many businesses do their best to create similar business techniques, while staying in the bounds of the law, but very few have seen success even close to those of the businessmen of our earlier days. Its extremely fascinating looking back at the early big time businessmen and wonder how different society would be to this day had they not followed through with their business plans. It’s true the world would be an extremely different place.