Cornelius Vanderbilt

When Cornelius Vanderbilt died in 1877 he was the wealthiest man of his time. Even in comparison to today he is still the wealthiest man in history. He was a tyrant when it came to business opportunities and acted on impulse and intuition to get there. Vanderbilt sparked public debate surrounding equality, opportunity and the role of the government in business that still continues today. During his 66 year career he drove the transportation revolution, pioneered the modern business corporation, and contributed to the birth of the big business.

The side of the big business debate that Vanderbilt took would most definitely be that businesses should be allowed to operate freely and that to be successful he needed to become as big as he could make it. He began his career at the early age of sixteen when he first operated one of his father's sailboats. By the age of nineteen he went into business for himself and ran a ferry between Manhattan and Staten Island. During this time be began to trade in cargoes of fish, produce, and goods. Vanderbilt invested in modern upscale facilities, built profitable shipping lines, and sooner or later he would either sell out to or buy out his competition (Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877), 1997). He also designed and built larger and faster steam boats making him the leading maritime architect of his time (Stiles, 2009). The way he made his business grow was by taking control of his competitors and through innovation making the business better than before. In 1848 the gold rush was starting in California, Vanderbilt organized the Accessory Transit Company in Nicaragua in order to transport passengers from the east coast to California by way of a canal through Nicaragua. West bound travelers would normally had to pay $600 to be transported by other steamships, but with Vanderbilt's ATC, passengers could save a considerable amount of money as well as knock off about a week of travel time (Stiles, 2009). Then in 1855 he started the transatlantic steamship line which again offered lower fares over the competition. During this time he also started a venture into ferries between Manhattan and Staten Island which is still in operation today (Stiles, 2009). After his bout with steamships, Vanderbilt turned his attention to railroads where he took control of a series of lines that connected New York to Chicago. By consolidating several little railroads into one massive line he created an interregional railroad system which lowered costs, increased efficiency, and decreased ravel times. In 1870 he merged his two railroad companies forming the first giant corporation in American history (Stiles, 2009). Vanderbilt believed that in order to become wealthy and successful he had to become as large as he possible could. This is evident in his estate at the time of his death which was over a 100 million.

Vanderbilt's beliefs resulted in many new innovations with the steamboat