In this subchapter Burton writes about how Vanderbilt got his start and became a major player in the steamship industry. It shows that even in the infancy of Vanderbilt’s career his practice of embracing competition and making better products for lower prices Vanderbilt was able to beat out the government subsidize companies. Burton starts off by talking about Robert Fulton, a man who ran a government franchise steamship company. Fulton’s company was simply Monopoly enforced by the state. One of his competitors Thomas Givens hired Cornelius Vanderbilt the challenge Phil Fulton by charging less than the Monopoly rates.
The chapter also talks about the effects of the Gobbins v. Ogden Where the supreme court struck down Fulton monopoly. This sparked a new wave of competition, which brought about technological advancements, lower prices and increased passenger traffic. Vanderbilt soon left his partnership with Miller and moved on to create his own shipping company. In the rest of the subchapter Burton gives examples of different political entrepreneurs and government…
Something important that i’ve learned this year is that when government get involved it usually cause competition to decline. The way I see monopolies now is, most of them are government franchises such as ConEd.
3* I’ve never viewed either of these men as bad men or as robber baron, i’ve always admires the men of the 19th and 20th century who saw these new industries developing and adapted to make a mostly honest profit. These men were friends of consumers because the put pressure on their competitors to provide better goods and services and reasonable prices. They embraces competition, made good products and sold them for low prices. When companies compete the consumer usually…
