Strange Tycoons: John D. Rockefeller

- Richest American in history $270 billion+

- 3rd richest person in history

- Personal wealth in 1913: 3% of US GDP

Vilified for his greed, canonized for his giving. A pious scoundrel-genius who made a brilliant case for MONOPOLY

Born 1839 - same era as Andrew Carnegie (1835), Jay Gould (1836) and J Pierpont Morgan (1837).

Time of limitless possibility. Post-Civil War industrial boom about to get under way.

The stage is set for an incredible life...

John’s father William is a charismatic entrepreneur (let’s say charlatan).

He’s away selling snake oil and cheating on his wife.

John D. becomes the man of the house to mom Eliza.

She trusts “John’s judgement” in all things.



At school in Ohio, he has a head for numbers and is nicknamed ‘the Deacon’ for his serious air and rectitude.

Becomes a bookkeeper, then starts out as a grain merchant. But his eyes are on the local oilfields.

Anyone can start a crude kerosene refining operation with a bit of capital. Kerosene is lighting up houses and log cabins across America.

Through shrewd moves, by age 25 Rockefeller has a controlling interest in the biggest refinery in Cleveland.

The 1860s oil industry is a wild frontier with brothels, taverns and gambling dens littering the fields.

Everyone’s looking for a quick buck. Except for Rockefeller.

He imagines an efficient, high-tech oil business that will drive the modern economy.

He buys up 30 smaller refiners in Cleveland and creates a shell company that allows collusion with the railroads.

They get steady business, he gets cheaper rates… and can build a monopoly.

But Rockefeller’s R&D investments mean safer, better oil, and its cost plummets too.

By 1891, Rockefeller’s company Standard Oil controls a quarter of American oil production.

It builds a massive HQ in Manhattan.

But Standard Oil is secretly “buying” politicians who are supportive of its interests.



And Rockefeller can’t stop the march towards antitrust law. He has to break up the company.

It doesn’t stop the biblical flood of money.

By 1907, Standard Oil:

- Refines 87% of the US kerosene

- Has 90% of the domestic market

- Is *20 times* the size of its next competitor

President Teddy Roosevelt goes after Rockefeller.

There’s a chance that, in his 60s, John could go to jail.

In courtroom testimony in Chicago he pretends to be a bumbling old man who can’t remember much.

It doesn’t work.