A railroad tycoon. He took up the sea transport, finances and trading. He built several
most important railroads. He resolved business disputes mainly fairly but didn't hesitate
to bribe and blackmail. He endowed Vanderbilt University with $1 million. Besides he went
down in history as a king of dumping.
When we consider his horoscope the thing that strikes us is a great number of aspects and
planet configurations. Alongside the inharmonious tau-square (the Uranus-the Pluto-the Saturn
with the Mercury) there exist protective trigon (the Venus-the Mars-the Pluto) and two roofs
(the Mars-the Uranus-the Venus and the Jupiter-the Pluto-the Neptune). Vanderbilt had 11
children (due to the romantic trin). And mighty expression of Uranus provided a direction
of his business activities - engineering (steam engines and steam boats - Neptune). The
powerful and harmonic Jupiter gave great opportunities for business development (the Moon
in Taurus is a sign of subconscious desire for comfort and wealth). The Saturn in the tau-square
focus defined the methods of running his business - dumping as a way to compete with his rivals.
Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on May, 27 1794. He started his carrier as a ferryman. At the
age of 11 Cornelius quit school and began to help his father in the ferry. In five years he
coaxed his mother to lend him a hundred dollars so that he could set up his own business.
Farming was assumed to become his business but a clever boy used his first loan capital in
a different way - he bought a brig and like his father began to carry passengers from Staten
Island to the nearest point Manhattan and back. A pipsqueak of a vessel leaked like a sieve.
Once it even was close to founder but a young Vanderbilt toiled all days long thus working up
a reputation of the trustworthy and the cheapest ferryman in the line, the last quality being
especially important. Cornelius took just 18 cents from each passenger and in a year not only
gave back the loan to his mother but saved $1000.
Soon this money found its application. In 1812 the USA declared war on England and a gumptious
ship-owner obtained an exclusive right from the Federal Government to transport goods and
people over water between New-York and protective forts built around it. Having bought a
schooner and two smaller ships Vanderbilt organized an active navigation on the Hudson. To
the end of 1817 he increased his fortune up to $9 thousand but for a share in the coastal
company set up by him that controlled the whole navigation around New-York.
But the same year unexpected competitors arouse before the young businessman - steamboats -
so that the company's income began to sink. Having no wish to be behind the technical progress
its director sold all his sailing fleet and became a ship captain in Thomas Hipbone Ship
Company. There he got $60 for a month. He made up his mind to work "for a boss" only because
he had one great far-reaching aim: before he will succeed in the ship business on his own
Vanderbilt decided to plunge into its every detail.
Soon Cornelius became Hipbone's equal business partner due to the beginning of the war with
one more competitor - Fulton-Livingston Company. Among of its co-founders there was a
developer of the first paddle boats - Robert Fulton whom the Empire State government granted
a sole right to the shipping down the Hudson for 30 years. Captain Vanderbilt sailed his old
ship around "foreign" territory unlicensed at dumping prices.
Cornellius Vanderbilt when working at Hipbone's worked out his own business style - to give
up forming alliances with his rivals but to drive them out from the market flattening them
with dumping (tau-square methods). The effective antimonopoly law was still in the womb of
time (a famous Sherman Act was adopted only in 1890), so such things were common. And
Vanderbilt could do it as nobody could. It's worth noticing he usually marketed cheaper
goods but of high quality.
At the same time Cornelius Vanderbilt who was proud for being called a flag officer he does
scruple to some shady means. In particular, he intimidated the competitors by the cutthroats
whom you could easily hire at any port (the mafia Pluto in tau-square).
In 1829 a Hipbone's partner decided to find out about the ship business everything he wanted.
He set up in his own sailing business. Daniel Drue, the shareholder of shipping companies,
was the first Vanderbilt's major rival. An experienced financial shark he was a well-known
stock gambler on Wall Street. Their rivalry lasted more than half a century - in different
business fields with varied success. In the first fight Vanderbilt won his competitor with
the same dumping. A major competitor was completely forced out from the Hudson; the others
had to wave the white flag and beg for peace. Vanderbilt leaved the Hudson to his rivals for
the fantastic smart-money ($100 thousand at a time and $50 thousand annually for ten years)
his business being switched to the other more promising regions.
For those days Cornelius owned a really provoking fortune but tycoon's behavior shocked his
contemporaries. He bragged openly not only about his money but his uncouthness and sheer
ignorance in all spheres except business. "For all my life I was mad about money - searching
for new ways of making money left no time for education", - he was confessing in newspapers.
Keeping on stressing his plebeian origin a flag officer took no care of the strong language
in public - his hard sea words put to the blush even officers and made their female companions
almost faint. The most popular example of luxury and bad taste was a three--storied palace
built by Vanderbilt on his native Staten Island. His pediment was decorated with its owner's
bronze statue as the ancient God sitting on the throne. Those times American elite jeered at
Vanderbilt's tricks but New York society took over at striking speed every new thing of the
magnate.
Europe condemned the rich man's behavior even more. No wonder - unceremoniously he could rent
the biggest London Opera House for a night calling off a planned play for a forfeit so that
his friends had a party there. In those days the Old World high-class clubs and the European
society itself were closed for the loutish Yankees, their heavy "green" wads hadn't any magic
influence on the European elite.
Got used not to have a dread of the obstacles Vanderbilt soon began to break this wall
marrying off his single daughters (on the whole he had eight daughters and three sons) to
the European aristocrats of noble birth. A peak of this matrimonial operation was his
daughter Consuelo's wedding with the Ninth Duke Marlboro (a cousin of Winston Churchill) -
$2 million dowry helped the Duke restore his family castle Blenheim and his father-in-law
open the doors into London high life.
In spite of his advanced age Vanderbilt with his fortune of $40 million went on mastering
new business fields. When he was almost 70 he sold his fleet, the biggest one at that time.
After it the magnate took up the steam mechanics but land one: a steamship lord made up his
mind to become a railway king.
Vanderbilt began to build a railroad having bought one of the biggest and promising companies
- Harlem Railroad. Then he made up to purchase Hudson River Railroad in order to join them and
get a control over key railroad sections on the Eastern coast. By 1869 he joined his railroads
whose total capitalization increased to $90 million.
However a tycoon took the greatest knock in his lifetime. Vanderbilt coveted Erie Railroad
Company which would give him control over all railroads from New York to Chicago. But he
underestimated people who owned this company - that very Daniel Drue was its actual proprietor.
This time he acted through his young partners Jim Fisk and Jay Gould the last one being a
high-up in the history of American business. Gould gathered wealth on plunging, then always
was in the spotlight. He set up a famous Western Union - later the biggest telegraph company
in the world.
An old magnate didn't except at all that a new generation, Drue's partners in particular,
would fight back so seriously with his own methods. Neither aggressive buying up of Erie's
stocks (to get a majority holding) nor attacks by Vanderbilt's squad on its trains didn't work.
In the first case his rivals bribed New Jersey legislative power and made an illegal overissue -
they marketed 100 thousand securities not backed by assets. But Vanderbilt had no more strength
to buy them. To protect his trains and bridges Gould didn't grudge purchasing army cannons and
formed a special fighting fleet. It was a long-lasting war that became history as "a fight for
Erie"and ended up with a peaceful compromise - Vanderbilt suffered a loss "only" $1,5 million.
Fisk and Gould took control over the railroad that was on the verge of bankruptcy.
However by the end of his life Vanderbilt managed to build up a railroad empire with the total
capital $150 million, two thirds of it belonged to him personally. But "a fight for Erie"
weakened a tycoon - an old wolf realized that more pushing wolf-cubs pressed him in this world
and on January, 4 1877 he passed beyond the veil.
According to Vanderbilt's last will his $105 million were divided as follows: $50 thousand were
given to one of New York churches, $1 million - to the Central University (now Vanderbilt
University) and approximately $9 million - to his children whom the flag officer considered
to be good-for-nothing because they didn't want to take up business and showed no abilities
for this. An exception made William - Cornelius Vanderbilt's hope and his successor who got
another $95.
