” This stuff fits my Civil War theory pretty well. How about yours? “
The Rockefeller family was of no significance until petroleum began replacing whale oil in oil lamps in the years following the Civil War. I can’t imagine any connection of the Rockefellers to the Civil War.
John D Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in Cleveland, Ohio where the family had moved when he was a boy. He later took the company headquarters to New York City, but then all large firms wanted to be in the financial capital of the country.
It is part and parcel of the culture that was created by the conditions which caused the Civil War. It was an example of the predatory capitalistic tendencies which Adam Smith warned us about in absence of some sort of control by the State.
Unfortunately, it appears "Business" had developed control over the state instead of the other way around. The Rockefeller industry was simply another tree that grew out of that same cultural ground.
No wonder Teddy Roosevelt came as such a shock to so many of the industrialists of that era. He was from New York too, but didn't behave like a proper member of the elite society. He was advocating all this "ethics" and ant-monopoly stuff. I'm sorta hoping that Trump pulls a "Teddy", and gets some of these globalists under control.
John D Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in Cleveland, Ohio where the family had moved when he was a boy. He later took the company headquarters to New York City, but then all large firms wanted to be in the financial capital of the country.
That it had become the financial capital of the country is exactly the point. Had the South seceded, it would have still been the financial capital of the USA, but it would have been greatly attenuated in it's wealth and power.