8.12.4

Discuss entrepreneurs, industrialists, and bankers in politics, commerce, and industry (e.g. Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Leland Stanford).
            Entrepreneurs, people that organize and operate businesses, were perhaps one of the people with the most power during the Industrial Revolution. Entrepreneurs of this time period included John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. Andrew Carnegie was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, and developed a system known as vertical integration. Vertical integration meaning that he cut out middle men from his business. John D. Rockefeller founded the U.S. Steel Company, where he developed a system that was contrary to that of Carnegie’s, and was a horizontal system. The horizontal system was a system that ran Rockefeller’s product through all the stages. The Standard Oil Company and the U.S. Steel Company were both very successful, but took different actions on their way to success.
            Industrialists, people who own or direct an industrial enterprise, were definitely people who did own great power during this time period. One of the “Great Four”, Leland Stanford built the California’s Central Pacific Railroad, was an industrialist that was greatly involved in politics. Leland Stanford was known to be a great politician, and unlike most others, a great businessman also. Although he concluded to be a successful man, the beginning of Stanford’s career was not a very favorable one, as he became an unsuccessful Republican candidate for state treasurer in 1857, and in 1859, he was the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial candidate. Finally, in 1861, Stanford was elected as the Republican governor, mainly because the Civil War divided the Democratic vote. As governor, Stanford played a part in keeping California loyal to the Union.
            Bankers, people who own a bank, definitely owned the most money during the Industrial Revolution. Although there were not many bankers during this time period, it is still obvious that bankers owned great amounts of money during a time when businesses were being started, and all the growing companies loaned money from the bank. Bankers were definitely important figures during this time period.


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