World’s richest man ever John D. Rockefeller had “God-given gift” for making money

John D. Rockefeller was raised by a Baptist and a con-man, and he grew up worshipping God and the dollar.

One of the most controversial figures of the 19th century, Rockefeller transformed the American economy and pocketed nearly 2% of its wealth – his fortune was valued at $1.4 billion at his death in 1937 (adjusted for inflation, that’s $15 billion today, still placing him on contemporary Richest Ever lists). But if you calculate his net worth according to his 1.5% share over America’s GDP at the time, his fortune is more accurately valued at $631 billion in today’s dollars*.

For this reason, although it’s hard to accurately gauge the wealth of many historical figures, most scholars believe he was the richest person (ever) – adjusted for inflation.

Rockefeller as a young man

His company, Standard Oil, was founded in 1870, and coincided with (and arguably caused) a boom of American expansion and technological innovation. Often regarded as a “robber baron,” Rockefeller created a ruthless new business practice that horizontally and vertically swallowed his competitors and suppliers until he controlled 90% of all oil in America in 1900.

Yet humbled by his Baptist upbringing, Rockefeller retired in 1897 and devoted the rest of his life (and a significant portion of his wealth) to philanthropy. He founded several schools and universities, created invaluable healthcare systems, and pumped money into infrastructure to modernise the South. In almost every major city in America today you’ll walk past plazas and buildings and streets and public art and schools created because of the massive reach of his wealth and the influence of his family.

But he didn’t start off a legend, he started as a man.

Rockefeller and his son walking together

Born to humble beginnings, Rockefeller grew up in a thrifty home in New York with five siblings. His father was a con-man and a bigamist who drifted in and out of their life, and their mother was a devoutly religious woman who put up with the chaos. His father ran out for good before the family moved to Ohio, where he’d make his fortune.

As you could do back then, Rockefeller got a job as an assistant bookkeeper at age 16, where he gained the business skills needed to collect debts and manage transportation costs. He only took one 10-week business class in his life. Rockefeller said when he was younger his two goals in life were to “make $100,000 ($327 million in today’s money) and live to 100 years.”

Within 10 years, he’d already achieved his first goal – though he never got to the second. After saving up some money from successful business ventures, borrowing money from his father, and avoiding service in the Civil War, Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in 1870 with his brother William. The pair already had significant experience in the oil refinery business, but with their start-up capital, cost-cutting habits, and notorious reputations in the booming post-war market, they were able to sink their teeth deep into America’s economy.

Rockefeller’s success came from his practice of horizontal and vertical integration. He crushed his competitors by showing them how rich his books were, and telling them he’d buy them out or run them into bankruptcy and buy them at auction. In 1872, Standard Oil swallowed 20 out of its 22 competitors in Cleveland in what was known as the “Cleveland Massacre,” and from there, the Standard Oil Trust absorbed almost every other producer in the country.

The company grew vertically as well, by buying up railroads to transport their oil for cheaper costs, producing their own barrels, and selling their oil-based waste as new products like paint or chewing gum.

Although his monopoly over the market decreased the cost of oil and household goods for average Americans, Rockefeller had the economy in a chokehold, and journalists and the US government began to take notice of his illegal business practices.

Although he retired in 1897, by 1911, the US government was finally able to take its most decisive action against him by passing the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibited business monopolies and forcibly dissolved the Standard Oil Trust into 34 companies (many of which we still have today, like ExxonMobil, BP, and Chevron). The breakup reduced Rockefeller’s control over the industry, but it only made him richer – by 1913 he was worth $900 million, or $631 billion in today’s money.

He spent the rest of his life giving some of that money back – although he was a Republican who believed “God gave me money,” he was also a staunch Abolitionist who supported the Underground Railroad. He gave millions to founding black female seminaries (one of which later became the prestigious HBCU Spelman College) and other schools in the South.

He also founded elite institutions like the University of Chicago and the Rockefeller University, and the Rockefeller Foundation to fund his philanthropy. He dedicated millions to sanitation campaigns to end the spread of hookworm (which it achieved) and built the first school of hygiene and public health at Johns Hopkins. He also spent millions on infrastructure, buildings, public art, and politics.

The garden at Rockefeller’s estate

With the rest of his money, Rockefeller lived lavishly. He had multiple manions, including a compound in New York called Kykuit, which had 75 houses and 70 roads within the family estate. Imagine golf courses, replicas of the gardens of Versailles, bowling alleys and farms that produced their own food, armies of staff and gardeners and chefs, meetings with Presidents and Kings in golden dining halls. Their money was incomprehensible, particularly for the time – the estate was often described with the quip “It’s what God would’ve built, if only he had the money.”

But even though he had the money, Rockefeller never achieved his childhood dream of living to 100. He died 2 years and 46 days short of his goal at age 97, of arteriosclerosis at his home in Florida, having lived by the words he often quoted in his last years of life:

I was early taught to work as well as play,
My life has been one long, happy holiday;
Full of work and full of play—
I dropped the worry on the way—
And God was good to me everyday.

*There are several possible ways of calculating inflation adjusted figures. The type of inflation adjustment used here is called “economic share,” which is the most appropriate for sums of money as large as this. This calculates Rockefeller’s wealth relative to the size of the US economy at the time. Someone who controlled an equivalent share of the US economy today would have a net worth of $631 billion.