The Second Revolution

The second industrial revolution can be seen as the explosion of such thing as steel, electricity, and chemicals, but these three things are not the only important aspects to the time period. For me, the most important part was the creation of the corporation, because this reinforced the drive for capital that is important for booming economies, such as those in the time period. In my opinion, Rockefeller was an astounding businessman who managed to create the biggest oil company in the United States through his ability to vertically consolidate the oil industry in such a profound way. He literally owned everything in the process, which meant that he could control the prices on every step, allowing him to make huge profits. Some people many think that he is a horrible man because essentially destroyed competition and took advantage of the government, but I think that he shouldn’t be held accountable for his ability to manipulate the system to his favor. Had be blatantly broken laws at every corner, he definitely should have been punished, but all he did was take what was given to him and turn it into a huge economical empire. That being said, I do feel that it’s important to limit the size of huge corporations to keep the market from turning into the playground for a few extremely large firms, but I think it’s unfair to discredit the genius of someone like Rockefeller, who took lemons and made zillions of dollars off of them.