John Davison Rockefeller is a famous American businessman and the "first billionaire and patriarch of America's most famous dynasty - is an icon whose true nature has escaped three generations of historians. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay “Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamist snake-oil salesman and a pious, narrow-minded mother, Rockefeller passed from rustic origins to become the richest man in the world by creating the most powerful and feared monopoly in the United States, Standard Oil. Named “the Octopus” by legions of muckrakers, the company refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America. » Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839, in Richford, New York. "He was the second child of six children in the family of German Protestants William Aver Rockefeller and Eliza Davison." His father was first a lumberjack, then a wandering merchant who called himself "doctor of botany", who sold various elixirs and rarely visited his house. By nature, William Aver Rockefeller was a risky person, which helped him build up that small amount of capital that allowed him to purchase land for $3,100. However, the propensity to take risks went hand in hand with foresight, which is why part of the capital was invested in various enterprises. Additionally, it was William who taught John his first sales lessons and formed his ideology. Eliza Davison, John's mother, ran a household. She was a very devout Baptist and was often poor because her husband was always away for long periods of time and she constantly had to save on everything. At the age of sixteen, John Rockefeller began working as an accounting assistant. This position suited a young man better: he knew how to handle numbers, and even more, he loved them. It was 1855, and Rockefeller kept the books and paid the bills for Hewitt and Tuttle, Cleveland merchants who engaged in real estate investments and traded iron ore, marble, and food. They Rockefeller learned to conduct various business transactions, from organizing deliveries by railway and waterways to managing non-residential buildings: houses, warehouses and offices. He didn't just do the work, he reveled in it: he checked every file, looked for the slightest errors, collected rents down to the last cent and looked at colleagues who did not demonstrate the same perseverance and commitment. same passion for this routine work. . For him, library books were sacred: they not only helped to make the right decision, identify fraud and evaluate success, but also protected a person from misconceptions about actions. By that time, he already knew mathematics quite well and had even completed a three-month accounting course in Cleveland. However, finding a job was not so easy. 6 weeks of research were lost. Until John, finally, did not take the assistant accountant in the company "Hewitt and Tuttle". "Hewitt and Tuttle" was engaged in real estate and shipping. It should be noted that it was such a period that Rockefeller's first three months were more likely to be learning than working. Those. I did everything completely for free. Thanks to his mathematical skills, he rose to the position of accountant. In less than two years, Rockefeller was promoted to account manager. But when he asked for a salary increase, it was refused, much to his disappointment. On April 1, 1858, when Rockefeller had not yetTwenty years old, he decided to leave the business and start his own business. John and his partner Maurice B. Clark founded their new company called "Clark and Rockefeller". On April 12, 1861, as the southern states announced their withdrawal from the Union, a civil war began. The federal government accepted more than hundreds of thousands of requests for uniforms, rifles as well as supplies such as meat, sugar and tobacco. Thus, the “Clark and Rockefeller” company “raised $4,000 ($108,948 in 2017 dollars) in capital. Rockefeller progressed steadily in business from then on, making money every year of his career. » Around the time John Rockefeller and Maurice Clark started their business, oil was discovered in Pennsylvania, which led to the emergence of a new trend around the world. trade. Oil fever broke out in part thanks to the work of Benjamin Si (professor of chemistry at Yale University). Which showed that the oil load was wet. fuel for lamps and lubricants for machines - products which had great commercial potential in a young country where new houses, offices, shops, factories and railways were being built at an active pace. One of the first oil companies was Seneca Oil, which sent Edwin Drake to drill wells in the western Pennsylvania village of Titusville. The wealth hunters rushed to the village in droves, training everywhere, even in the main streets; it's a stark example of America's growing struggling business class during and after the Civil War. Soon, in western Pennsylvania, new oil fountains were being hammered. First, the oil was processed in small, often dilapidated, sewage treatment plants near drilling sites. and there were more oil refineries. More and more people recognized Drake's success, and with its location at the crossroads of important steel routes, heavy industry itself came to Rockefeller. From the start, the oil business was wild and well suited to a man accustomed to bringing order to chaos. As the market was only beginning to form, supply and demand often competed, causing large price fluctuations. In 1861, crude oil prices ranged from 10 cents to $10 per barrel. In 1864, prices ranged from $4 to $12. At some point, oil producers got rich and also went bankrupt. The Rockefeller empire grew rapidly. John Rockefeller gradually entered the oil business. Soon after, the United States began exporting oil to Europe, and Cleveland became the nation's largest transportation and oil refinery. If we look back, we can see that it was a deliberate turn-based strategy, a skillful combination of experimentation, prudence, vision and implementation. He acted like a grandmaster, making one thoughtful move at a time, but decisively and quickly. In 1863, there were twenty oil refineries in the Cleveland area. “The refinery was directly owned by Andrews, Clark & ​​Company, consisting of Clark & ​​Rockefeller, chemist Samuel Andrews, and M. B. Clark's two brothers. The commercial oil industry was then in its infancy, producing over one hundred thousand gallons. In 1863, Rockefeller and Clark purchased half the working capital of an oil refinery owned by Clark's friend Samuel Andrews. Soon, John Rockefeller married Celestia Spelman; At that time, Rockefeller already had a decent income, considerable savings and a growing state. He actively participates in..“