Did you ever wonder if the Robber Barons really did earn their reputation?  Well, try these few individuals on for size.

Only a mild examination of the Gilded Age gives many vivid illustrations of how the Robber Barons rightfully earned such a disreputable distinction.  The expansion of the railroad led to numerous opportunities for the quick manipulator and the well connected to promptly abscond with millions of dollars worth of public property and Congress-awarded capital.  In total, over one hundred and fifty million acres of land including all mineral rights were granted to railroad industrialists who split the Wild West with new train routes which connected newly settled California with the east (Josephson 79).  One of the most clever railroad tycoons was Jay Cooke.  He not only was granted public land to build the Union Pacific Railroad, but he also used government loaned capital which enabled him to build railroads while risking nothing of his own wealth.  As work ensued on the Cooke inspired railroad, the price per mile was eventually raised to such exorbitant heights that when the golden spike was pounded in at Promontory Point there was over fifty million dollars of public funds unaccounted for (Josephson 92).  Another of the railroad barons, Joseph Huntington, would force local towns to pay for the privilege of having their town connected to the railroad while threatening that their refusal would mean another town would prosper (Josephson 84-85).  Jay Gould, perhaps the most talented devious mind of the bunch, illegally printed millions of dollars worth of Erie Railroad stock in order to thwart a take-over by rival Vanderbilt (Josephson 133).

While all of this illegal posturing over control of the railroads progressed, American business practices were beginning to drastically shift.

As the railroad changed the way business operated by enabling companies to become regional and then eventually national forces, the great industrial giants brokered shady deals with the railroads in order to gain an inch of advantage over their competitors. J. D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil became a monolith which sought to crush all competition, and he knew that controlling the railroads was a huge part of that.  He forced railroads to agree to offer illegal rebates on freight charges to make his oil the most competitive (Porter 72-73). Once the railroads were in his back pocket, he could as he would say “turn the screw” on competitors either forcing them to sell, to join his syndicate or to be run out of business.  Such tactics produced the giant Standard Oil Trust which boasted control of nearly 90% of the nation’s refined oil by the end of the 1870s (Porter 73). The market was cornered and the government took little notice.

Rockefeller and associates wanted to do away with the speculative nature of oil by controlling output and putting competitors out of business so they could dictate world prices (Josephson 116). The barons of the Standard Oil Trust sat and discussed their business dealings in the same manner as the government’s executive branch would map out the country’s future and set goals for development.  The difference being, in theory, that government officials would be building economic systems which ultimately encourage investment and growth which benefit the entire nation in increased production, wealth-building, and tax revenue.  In contrast, the oligopoly of Rockefeller planned out their attack to benefit their own competitive edge by ruthlessly driving competitors out of business through strong-armed tactics and shrewd closed-door business deals.  Complete control of the market had become the mindset of the day, and the wealthy elite seemed to be able to control it at will – often times illegally.  It was an unsavory business that would create serious doubts in the minds of Americans concerning the nature of big business in America.