Cornelius Vanderbilt: America’s First Tycoon
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- Опубліковано 26 чер 2024
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Host - Simon Whistler
Author - Radu Alexander
Producer - Jennifer Da Silva
Executive Producer - Shell Harris
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Make one video about J Edgar Hoover please
Hugs from Brazil
Probably regrets having kids.
Can you do a video on grand duchess Olga nikolaevna Romanov
Do king Faisal of Saudi Arabia
Seriously why is the top tenz gone? It's all been taken down. Very dissapointed!
I finally understand why Vanderbilt University’s mascot is a Commodore despite it being in landlocked Tennessee
His grandson built the Biltmore Estate in Asheville NC and it is still in the hands of the descendants. The neat fact of its existence is that the company that runs it pays no taxes to the feds in exchange for the land that the Pisgha National Forest that it used to own.
It’s so weird to think about the fact that Anderson Cooper is a Vanderbilt.
Jonathan Aisel really? FFS
@Nesper His mother was a Vanderbilt heiress. She inherited something to the tune of $35 million in today's money.
He had a lot of kids, and only one of them ended up with "generational wealth", so you might be surprised by who and how numerous his descendants are...
I'm pretty sure Cornelius would have thrown "Sweet Pea" off his ship!
@Nesper He's a Vanderbilt by BLOOD, but not by name. If he were a citizen of a Spanish speaking country, he would also be a Vanderbilt by name.
“If I had learned education I would not have had time to learn anything else.”
Cornelius Vanderbilt
'learned education' nice quote.
He was right though.
Smarter than a school teacher
@@loydkline4686 Without school teachers, we wouldn’t have a viable educated populace to compete globally. With the Vanderbilts, we wouldn’t have corporate monopolies and the bought Congress we have today.
Conservatives have no business litigating intelligence.
Would love some follow ups on these old families, like how the Vanderbilts became the Whitneys, etc, and the wealth lasts into the present day.
I second this sentiment. Follow the money.
They’re now pretty much broke.
1:15 - Chapter 1 - Early years
6:10 - Chapter 2 - The birth of an empire
8:20 - Chapter 3 - Going into nicaragua
11:15 - Mid roll ads
12:45 - Chapter 4 - The war of the commodores
16:50 - Chapter 5 - From ships to trains
If you ever find yourself in western North Carolina visit the Biltmore estate if you feel like feeling poor. That “house” is ridiculous
Joe Coastie Is that where Vanderbilt lived?
@@billy1168 no, his grandson built the estate as a summer home.
Joe Coastie I used to work there, the opulence of that "summer house" never seized to impress me.
Something everyone should see at least once in their lives. Here in NC it is usually a fieldtrip around middle school age but i have noticed that my daughter's school hasnt had many trips there as of late (before covid-19). To really appreciate it i think it needs to be a highschool fieldtrip, as when we went in 6th grade we really couldnt appreciate its opulence for the era it was built and couldnt tell you one fact about it. Now in my older age i find myself more interested in this family and their dynasty. Never knew the actor Timothy Olyphant was a descendant of them until recently....the more you know😜
It is beautiful. It is art. It is a master piece.
Thank you for this educational piece. I love the nitty gritty details of his struggles. Also the fact he didn’t become the wealthiest man in America til he was in his 70s. You only hear that he got into Transportation and became a millionaire. Like it was overnight. When this proves it takes time and a lot of hard work to get to this status
Thank you. I'm glad they mentioned that.
southernbellechef your right no matter the bussines your in it takes a lot of hard work to even get to the status of being a millionaire. as you pointed out it doesn't happen over night.
Ah yes. My mom grew up in Tennessee and Vandy was one of the schools she wanted me to go too once I graduated hs. Thanks for sharing his history
His holiday cost $500,000 in 1853 which is $16,797,272.73 in today's money (according to Google)
19:35 i bet he was starting to sell off his stuff in the 1850s not the 1950s
Lol I caught that too.
Lol considering he was long dead…
OOPS😉
Good old Simon ploughs on through every typo..
Had to play it back to make sure I wasn't crazy
I was just at the Vanderbilt Museum on Long Island. It's crazy how many sea creature specimens he collected!!
My fiancée lives right by the railway (now semi-operating) in Cranbury, NJ. I went to college (or university for non-Americans) on one of the Vanderbilt estates, that of Florence Adele Vanderbilt. While I’m at it, I currently live on land that once a part of one of J. D. Rockefeller’s hunting estates. Land he ultimately sold to the county (most of which is currently a park). Those robber barons really shaped the US in ways that affect many of us daily more than a century later. Good video as usual.
If you’d ever want to visit the historic Biltmore House, I suggest spending the extra money for their Holidays displays. I cried, it was so beautiful.
The Vanderbilt family would make for an interesting series(if done right).
13:33 okay the story of Vanderbilt's first vacation has to be the funniest thing in the world 😂
So working hard, being reliable, investing in your business, and charging less than others was succesful back then. I wonder what happened.
immortal corporations
@@Jack-he8jv Vanderbilt as a brandname(and their origin family) still excist. So being “an immortal(autocorrect tried to change it to immoral lol!) corporate in itself doesn’t persé create the opposite of what Cornelis did.
Reagan.
@@kaseythornton8155 what?! Ronald Reagan is a saint. You're insane.
@@Jack-he8jv The third and fourth generation of the Vanderbilt were relatively weak and started to shift most of their time into partying and eventually made them bankrupt.
I love this era! So fascinating! How about jp Morgan or the astors?
lol they run the world, they arent great either. they are smart and know how to save this planet. they take genochrome so they live longer which is why mark zuckerburg looks like a lizard. the queen also is taking this. they are soo rich the central bank is using candidates as puppets.
@@crisp8412 if you look close enough when you pour a glass of Tropicana orange juice you can see the circuit boards of a television. Diamonds aren't worth the money modern society has priced them. Ancient man was aware of these anomalies. That is why turquoise and alabaster are used in the manufacturing of things like Coca Cola and baby formula.
*Last time I was this early, Simon still had hair*
He still has hair, it just migrated to his face like geese in the winter
Ah yes, the terrifying days of baby faced Simon.
He uses Dollar Shave😀
😆🤣😅
His hair fell out and landed on his face
William Walker needs a Biographic on his own.
true
Still haven't done a biography about me.
Don't worry abe. You'll get yours, someday.
Abe!!! My man!!! Don’t worry bro you will get yours someday!! It’s not like you will be going anywhere😉
I know. I'm still waiting as well.
Yeah, Like Simon can’t wait to cross that mine field of ignorant loud mouths.
Abraham Lincoln don’t worry Simon will take a shot at it soon enough. This time it shouldn’t hurt so much.
I second that motion on Woodhull! Would definitely be a cool video!
you have a great channel keep up the great work
The man was indeed ruthless.
A good example of how having a work ethic doesn't necessarily mean being ethical.
Excellent as always
Simon! You're back! Good to see you...
Very interesting. Thank you.
Now, that's how I like it....a notification about Geographics, Biographics, TopTenz and VisualPolitik EN videos in one go! 👍🏻👌🏻👏🏻🍻
Please, a video about J. Edgar Hoover or Dick Cheney
Hugs from Brazil
J. Edgar Hoover and ‘dick’ in the same sentence... i see what you did there Marcelo!
Marcelo Aleixo
I’m pretty sure he’s already done a video on Hoover though.
@@myownboss1 this is clyde tolson's business kkkkkkkkk
Very interesting and educational video!
Life doesn't care about right or wrong, life doesn't care about good or evil, and life doesn't care how it feels... Life is about success and what goes on. All of us here are the descendants of a literally unbroken line of winners. You can tell me what qualities we have.
That was excellent, I learned a lot, thanks
There are so many things around my area named after Vanderbilt, most famous might be Motor Parkway, otherwise known as Vanderbilt Parkway. It was the first roadway built exclusively for cars.
Nowadays it's a chopped up mess, ranging for a 2 lane sort of backroad to 4 lane highway. It used to go quite a long ways when it was first build, from Queens NYC out into the boondocks. Ironically the portion that was out in Queens is more of a walking or biking trail and the remaining driveable portions are where I live out in the boonies (more suburban area now)
Great job again!
@19:45... The Confederate Navy never dominated the seas. given their beginnings they did a pretty solid job but they never could break the blockade completely and because of their naval inferiority their fleet operations were primarily centered around Port protection whereas the actual seas were dominated by the Union. Most of their attempts at actual ironclad cruisers were confiscated and the bulk of their ironclads numbered just over thirty with most of them being destroyed or scuttled or captured well before the actual surrender of the CSA. And they were all close range port defense. Their smaller gunboats were all used for blockade running. They never got dominance on the seas or really even the intercoastal waterways.
Thank you Kevin! You said it much better than I could have.
I was just about to do the same but I believe you said it
Also the armour on their ironclads was mostly improvised, such as a couple of layers of interlocked railway rails which were considerably less effective than single thickness armour that the union's industrial base was able to produce.
You beat me to it. Well said.
Yea, whoever does the research for these doesn't do a very good job. They once said the nazi ss stood for secret service
Great video as always. Please make a video about William Walker, the story of that guy is amazing.
Side note: why would a self made oligarch from Staten Island New York want to have a University in his name in Tennessee? There has to be some story behind that. Maybe Simon can do a biographic or a buildinggraphic on Vanderbilt University?
Ah, "De Bilt" such a nice town near Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Enschede 1992 and 2006.
A wonderful look at the Commodore,, an amazing story! To see how his descendants used the greatest fortune at the time, a fascinating look is laid out in a book "Fortune's Children: the. Fall of the House of Vanderbilt". A four generation saga that rivals Downton Abbey, but its all real!
Now that you've featured the Commodore, you MUST continue with Gloria Vanderbilt; then the Astors; followed by the Gettys. Please, oh please, oh please!!!
Kate Maloney
Kinda weird that she is Anderson Cooper’s mother.
Who are the Getty family?
@@jamesfracasse8178 google is free
@@supermodelwannabe no I'm asking you about it not Google it
Ever since I watched the "Men who Built America", I've become very fascinated by these capitalists.
Yes, they are motivation on the highest level.
@@johnwilliams029 Yeah, check out W.A. Clark, and his daughter in the book "Empty Mansions"!! Quite a story, and a fascinating read!
Also, for a really great read, John Jacob Astor's story in the book "Astoria" is almost hard to believe, and quite an adventure!!
A
@@JEANSDEMARCO i will! Thanks for letting me know!
Greatingsss from The Netherlands
@@johnwilliams029 You are welcome Mark! At 30 yrs old I knew nothing about anything, so I started reading as much as I could, and at 79 yrs old, I'm still at it!! lol😀
@@JEANSDEMARCOrespect for that! God bless you!
Please do videos on the following people:
1. Dennis Rader
2. Upton Sinclair
3. Jack London
4. Jack Ketchum
5. Jane Austen
Simon has all those already
During the height of industry, Pittsburgh had more millionaires than New York City. Please do a video on Pgh during the 'Golden Age'. Maybe compare to today
Fascinating!
I heard the name a lot, great to hear back story behind it.
Interesting how the narrator refers to price cutting at "stealing". I thought that price cutting is competition. If by robber baron you mean stealing from the monopolist in the form of lower prices, and thereby benefiting consumers, then celebrate the robber barons. On some of his routes Vanderbilt charged nothing! He made money by selling food and incidentals during the trip. Rockefeller was the all time greatest robber baron. The price of a gallon of gasoline plunged by 95%. The same for Carnegie and his steel. In addition to price cutting Carnegie sold a superior product. None of the bridges built with Carnegie steel failed, which was not an infrequent occurance at the time. Celebrate the robber barons!
The price cutting was only temporary. Once he had a monopoly he could jack the rates sky high. That's why monopolies are illegal. Anti free market.
"Robber baron" refers to how they exploited workers, getting rich on their misery by underpaying them, subjecting them to unsafe working conditions, and discarding them once they were injured.
@@BTScriviner compare it to the harshness of farm labour.
At that time people literally fled agrarian parts of Poland to move to the UK or to grab factory jobs in the USA.
Nobody forced the workers to work for Rockefellers and Carnegies.
They did it voluntarily, because although tough by our standards these jobs were the best of choice that these people possessed.
Capitalist countries, alas where workers were "exploited" by "robber barons" were the ones which were propelled into prosperity and the ones with higher life quality for the people- more literate people in England than Russia or Italy for example in the begging of the 20th century, as Britain was one of the first nation to attempt a capitalist experiment.
"Exploitation" is the wrong term which is ironically was used by the communists- which threw people into labour camps and shot them as well as starved tens of millions of people in USSR alone.
"Uplifting" would be more accurate to describe their deeds, whose actions both in providing jobs and philanthropy were significant.
For instance Rockefeller almost eliminated yellow fever in western hemisphere.
Nor were they "underpaying" their workers.
Price in economics (be it the price of labour- which is among resources and factors of production) serves as a measure of the value of a resource, a price for an abundant resource is usually smaller and- not do to a more generous producer at all but to its abundance and due to competition to sell it.
Due to the abundance of cheap labour, it obviously was worth less, as workers facing competition from other workers agreed to sell their labour for less.
And not due to a "robber baron" at all but due to a logical economic reality.
As for the working conditions, they improved over time, in Britain for instance this process began and excelled before a more representative government was installed.
Similarly worker wages will inevitably increase if there is less workforce available- and not at all do to Saint Augustines, but due to their skills possibly increasing in value.
Hey Simon, love all your channels and am eagerly awaiting more on Big projects. But I would like to see a biographics on Bill Clinton. Thx for what you and your team do.
He conquered Baja California. I bet he picked the location from a map and didn't know it was a desert with not much there. It's a desert with little population aside from some fishermen. "He ran out of supplies." If he was successful, he would have been running out of supplies for decades until he died of old age.
Next... Carl Gustav Mannerheim!
Hero of Finland burnt Stalin's mustache
I thought John Jacob Astor would have been America's first big business man
Lost with the Titanic
@@annescholey6546 no he didn't John Jacob Astor the 4th went down with the titanic his great great grandfather was American's first multi millionaire
Dood I love how all your hair slid off your head down to the bottom of your face. Keep up the good work brah 👍
As we Dutch say: If it ain't Dutch, it ain't much
As we Americans say: You're welcome from us for defeating the Germans n saving Europe🇺🇲
@@kaogoogle1031 The American president at the time of the second world war was of Dutch decent :)
Do you really say that? In English? Does that rhyme in Dutch?
Beter dan ooit?
@@kaogoogle1031 The Russians did most of the heavy lifting and without the UK you wouldn't have had a foothold in Europe from which to launch D day
John Jacob Astor was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States.
Wow! 8 minutes ago! Thank you Simon!
Tammy Rogers the video is over 20 mins long. You needed to leave an early comment about how long the video has been up instead of first watching it?
When you're such a plutocrat you end up doing a few good things on accident, purely in the name of profit!
Cornelius Vanderbilt the Ferengi
Well better to do honest good in the name of profit than not be able to good at all.
Small point: (19:50 min) -- 'The South dominated the seas with their ironclads'? Hmmm, always suspected that's why Grant lost at Vicksburg. Good catch. Otherwise, well-researched and refreshing vid. Thank you.
Yes John f Kennedy had an affair with Marilyn Monroe and this is brought to you by square space 😏
He was so mean to everyone. Family, friends, money, etc.....he only gave you a smidgen of respect if you matched his nastiness.
The Monty Burns of his day.
Where do you get your music for the intro screens for this, Geographics etc.?
Brilliant!!
Do the caflins next!
I think a Henry Flagler bio would quite interesting
True dutch merchant spirit!!
Actually John Jacob Astor was the Americas first tycoon
19.36 ..... Starting in the late 1950's ??? Haha...Just a little jab. Great video. Thanks.
1850's
Do a video on His Royal Highness Simon Legend Whistler!
Vanderbilt's tomb became a meeting place in the 1960s for smoking pot and enjoying the evening. Thank you Cornelius
you should do a video on the war of 1812 never learned much about that in school.
You mentioned Victoria Woodhull in passing? She was a very interesting woman, and a video bio of her would be fascinating.
Yeah the first woman to run for president and one can only wonder what if she won
That’s Part One:: The Vanderbilts are still very prominent family so what did all the descendants do with the fortune or with their own lives
Interesting story, that. Half a century after the Commodore died, one of his heirs died penniless.
Anderson Cooper
Nih-cah-RAHG-wah
NOT NicaragYOUa
Thank you
Can we please have subtitles for the HoH. Thanks.
Interesting tidbit, I guess in the 70's my Gpa got a letter from a family member stating that the last heir to the Vanderbilt fortune wanted to seek out direct relatives to claim ancestral right, but he got the information too late and idk what happened after that, I honestly don't believe it but Idk, I might ask him again. It was cool to learn about a long dead relative.
The Comodore, lol.
Thanks
The Confederacy was absolutely NOT the dominant naval power of the Civil War. The Union had a far larger navy, which is what prompted the CSA to experiment with new types of warships.
I’ll stick to having just enough money to live well just so I never have to meet these people or their children (one even killed himself, I don’t blame him...).
I would like to throw the suggestion of a Biographic on Sam Walton for the next one covering an industrialist.
Excellent account - did you read the best selling Biography of CV titled Tycoon?
Can you do Martin Luther next? The guy behind the protestant reformation
He's done a video on him already I think.
@@stephenwright8824 I searched a bit and I can't seem to find anything
The Commodore: Are you not into trains?!
Would love to see I Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett-Browning
Of Wimpole St
"Rank; Age?"
"Commodore; 64"
Yeah, even I think that joke is rubbish... :P
look at us nerds
Just think about how many people don't even understand what that means.
Love it🤣🤣🤣🤣
19:35 "Starting in the late 1950s he began selling..." Dude lived a very long time.
Nick Yuragua?!! He's at it again.
He's British FFS!
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
@@ripsumrall8018 Doesn't mean that he can butcher names of people or places just because he's British. I honestly think he likes doing it on purpose cause he's a pompous asshole.
This man was courageous, competitive, disciplined, driven and insanely hard working. Very admirable... Today's society is gutless, lazy, unmotivated, constantly complaining and weak. Huge contrast.
Just started watching this one.
Looking forward to hearing about his middle finger enterprise to the State granted ferry monopolies.
Openly defying the anti-free market Gov't granted monopolies by running his own ferries at a fraction of the costs.
Dude relax.. these channels are nothing more than information candy. If you want a rotund and thorough account with "no buzz" words, maybe look for a channel with a more acedemic approach. Not entertainment.
You might want to watch it again--Vanderbilt had no issues with monopolies provided his was the monopoly.
@@flatplant Or he might want to find some reich-wing propaganda channel to confirm his opinion.
You should do a video about "American Princesses"
Could you do a video about Gordon Stewart Northcott?!?!
It was William H. who first got into railroads, not his father. His father only got interested when William convinced him it was the way of the future.
You should do one about Lead Belly
My uncle is directly related to Arabella Huntington who was one of the richest women in America for some time.... The Huntington's were part of the railroad barons... Would be cool if you do a video on them....
1950’s (1850’s should of said) @ 19:38- ooops Simon😫😀😂😊‼️‼️‼️
I love your Videos ❤️😍♥️♥️
If, I did not know better I would think that this gent Cornelius Vanderbilt haves a similarity to Ralph Emerson, but like they say "everyone haves a twin." So, we are analyzing this statue and: The steamer was leaving a berth in the harbor at her usual time. Someone from the steamer hailed the sloop to luff or to put her helm down, but the sloop kept to her course, the master expressly refusing to give way. The steamer was turning when the collision happened. After considering the matter, the court refused to allow the sloop owner to recover because the sloop had brought
the injury on herself. The Cornelius C. Vanderbilt District Court, S.D. New York December, 1848, Term Case No. 3,235
Hey Simon, big fan of yours from the States, the beard is looking pristine; thanks for enriching my life with knowledge!! Cheers!
This make me want a video on walker