On the site of New York’s Empire State Building once stood mansions owned by the Astor families. William Waldorf Astor (1848-1919) owned one of two family mansions that stood side by side. He was a fourth generation Astor and heir to one of America’s first great fortunes amassed by his […]
Daily Archives: September 18, 2020
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In business, competitive pursuits are for market share or stock ownership. Vanderbilt would overcome recurring setbacks to master both. Undeterred by adversity, Vanderbilt grew a transcontinental fleet which he later sold to the Accessory Transit Company. At the age of seventy, what the Commodore had experienced in his quest for control of the Accessory Transit Company would stand him strong to gain control of the New York Central.
Most of America’s legendary family fortunes were built often by one man between the years of the Civil War and the turn of the century. The longevity of the Astor family wealth contrasts with those continuing with business roots including Busch (1876) Cargill (1865), Du Pont (1802), Mellon (1860), Rockefeller (1870).
There is a type of radical whose adverse verdict about capitalist civilisation rests on nothing except stupidity, ignorance or irresponsibility, who is unwilling to grasp the most obvious facts, let alone their implications. Joseph Schumpeter