How did Rockefeller live? Secrets of the Rockefeller family. You may also have heard of ExxonMobil.

It is believed that nature rests on children, because the sons and daughters of wealthy people, accustomed to luxury since childhood, easily spend their parents' money on whatever their darling wants. Well, there is a lot of evidence for such a statement. Just look at the Vanderbilts, the Carnegies, the Astors. Even 100 years ago, these names were synonymous with the concept of "megacapital", and today only memories remain of the once multimillion-dollar fortunes. But there are exceptions. The Rockefeller family is one of them.

The first official dollar billionaire in the history of mankind, John D. Rockefeller, left behind a large family. Today it unites more than 200 members. The heirs of John and his wife, Laura Shelman Rockefeller, have retained substantial capital: in 2016, their fortune was estimated at $ 11 billion.

The Rockefellers have another wealth - a surprisingly warm family relationship, without public scandals, lawsuits and tragedies, typical of most dynasties.

David Rockefeller Jr., CEO of Rockefeller & Co., recently gave an interview American channel CNBC, in which revealed family secrets: it was they who helped the Rockefellers to remain rich and at the same time close people. They apply to any family that wants to maintain a warm relationship despite all the financial storms.

1. Have more family get-togethers
They help you feel like part of a larger whole. And children get used to the fact that their inner circle includes not only parents, but also uncles, aunts, cousins, cousins, common grandfathers and grandmothers. On the one hand, they are native, cheerful and understandable, and on the other hand, they are successful and famous. This is a good role model, which helps to realize that success is within easy reach.

We have family gatherings twice a year. Often more than 100 family members are in the same room, attending, for example, a Christmas dinner.

And this is not all the family gatherings that the Rockefellers practice. In addition to common dinners, relatives regularly hold events called family forums. Every member of the family who is 21 years of age is invited to attend. During these meetings, relatives tell each other about new projects and business ideas that have arisen, share news from the lives of children, report on upcoming weddings and expected replenishment, and discuss education and career opportunities.

Such family forums are a place where everyone can see and everyone can trust each other. "It allows each of us to feel part of the family," sums up David Rockefeller Jr.

2. Keep family history to keep the connection between generations
In part, the Rockefellers implement this principle through family estates, where family members can come at any time to communicate with their past.

"These are the houses in which our family grew up from generation to generation. I can return to the place where my great-grandfather lived 100 years ago. There is much left untouched. I go into his room, into his office, walk along those paths, along I see how he lived, in what conditions his children grew up, what toys his grandchildren played with when they came here for the holidays. This makes it possible to keenly feel the connection that exists between all of us, " says David.

By the way, every Rockefeller knows his family tree thoroughly. It also enhances family attraction.

3. Let kids be independent
Rockefeller also considers the absence of such a phenomenon as a family business to be an important principle of success. In 1911, the first and only common family company, Standard Oil, at the request of the US government, was divided into small firms, which were taken over by John's children and grandchildren.

“I think we were lucky in this. We didn’t have a common business in which everyone would start pulling the blanket over themselves. Thanks to this, we managed not to quarrel over business. The division of business is practiced to this day. When the next generation of children grows up, parents do not mold them as successors of the family business.Each child knows that he can choose any area for self-realization and start something new. Big family support him unconditionally."

4. Explain the importance of lending a shoulder to those who need help.
The stronger and richer you are, the more you should invest in helping others. This Rockefeller family principle has been around for over 100 years.

On a marble stone in the colossal Rockefeller Center in New York, the words were carved, which contained the credo of the patriarch - John D. Rockefeller:

I believe that every right implies responsibility; every opportunity is a duty; every possession is a duty.

David Rockefeller Jr. operates with slightly different words: "To whom much is given, much will be asked of him." Every child in the Rockefeller family knows this phrase about responsibility and duty to help those in need. Children from an early age are attracted to charity. For example, David himself made his first conscious donation at the age of 10. And he continues to be a philanthropist.

Recall, earlier the information portal "Know.ua" wrote about what Hollywood stars surprised fans not only with a beautiful image or a chiseled figure, but also with a brilliant intellect.

If the rich are the aristocracy of capitalism, then the Rockefellers are its royal nobility. The financial group of the United States, formed at the end of the 19th century. Its head is J. D. Rockefeller Sr. (1839-1937), who founded oil company Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) (since 1973 Exxon) and the financial center Chase Manhattan Bank.

The Rockefellers are mainly engaged in the electrical, engineering, and life insurance industries. They have their own financial institutions.

In the 1980s, the role of this family decreased, and a significant part of the property under their control was sold off. The Rockefellers play a prominent role in the Republican Party.

The ancestors of the Rockefellers first lived in France, as their surname also indicates, but then they moved to Germany, and from there they arrived in New World in 1723.

The founder's father, William A. Rockefeller, was a "cancer cure" selling bottles of a thick greenish elixir for twenty-five dollars. As it turned out later, he used oil as an elixir. When it became clear that oil was a universal lighting agent, his son John Davison became the largest oil tycoon.

Big Bill, as he was called, not only quackery, he also rafted timber, lent money and sold stolen horses. Once his accomplices were arrested, but Big Bill himself managed to evade responsibility. Having got out of this case, he immediately got into another bind: the court charged him with raping a farm worker. To avoid arrest, William moved to another state.

The biography of the father greatly interfered with the career of his sons, the most famous - John Davis and the founder of the second dynastic branch - William. Later, they even tried to ennoble their origin and published a version according to which they came from the poor and achieved everything by their own labor. Of course, this was not entirely true: Big Bill had his own farm, and there were always servants in his house.

Children grew up in contentment and did not lack food or comfort. The father taught the children, and he had five of them, to bargain and seek profit in everything. John Davis was very capable: he bought sweets in a local shop and sold them to his relatives at a profit. The boy also earned by physical labor, digging potatoes from neighbors. He put all the money he earned in a porcelain piggy bank, and at the age of thirteen he was able to lend a farmer friend $ 50 from 7.5% per annum. He dreamed of making a hundred thousand dollars - in his imagination it was a huge pile of money.

At thirteen, he was sent to a school where Big John received his first knowledge of language, literature and mathematics. After graduating from this school, he moved to Cleveland College, where he met his future wife, Laura Spellman. But soon the young Rockefeller left college and took a three-month accounting course. After graduating from them and having worked for three years as an assistant accountant, he, together with M. Clark, created his first enterprise. Companions engaged in intermediary commission sale. They sold grain, meat, salt, etc. Things went uphill with the outbreak of the civil war: the company made good money on military supplies.

But John D. Rockefeller made his fortune in the oil business. In 1870, he already had five kerosene factories. And in 1911 he was the owner of the world's largest fortune.

Despite this, the American rich and aristocrats were in no hurry to accept Rockefeller into their circle. American mothers even forbade their children to play with the "grandchildren of a gangster." And only with great difficulty did John D. Rockefeller become a member of the Union League club.

In 1875, Rockefeller acquired the Pocantico Hills country estate and started a huge farm there. He had a dairy farm, all kinds of living creatures, vegetable gardens and plantations. John D. used only the products of his household, and wherever he went, he carried a wagon with food.

Later, Rockefeller would acquire three more estates, for a total of four estates, one for each season. John D. Rockefeller had a distaste for the wine industry, and the introduction of Prohibition in America was not without his participation. He also objected to smoking, dancing and theatre.

Rockefeller, accumulating and multiplying money, always made donations. At first he doubted the expediency of wide generosity, but then he noticed that wherever he gave money, he had devoted friends. In his declining years, he proclaimed the principle: "Man is obliged to do all that he can and give all that he can."

John D. Rockefeller led the Standard Oil Trust he created for about thirty years, creating an empire that stretched far beyond the borders of the United States. Rockefeller's ventures were worth a billion. A childhood dream has long come true, the goal of life has been achieved.

John Davison Rockefeller died in 1937, at the age of ninety-eight, having outlived twenty of his personal physicians. Rockefeller Sr. left almost all of his savings to his granddaughter, Margaret Strong de Cuevas, her children, and the Rockefeller Medical Research Institute.

John D. I's son, John D. II, was ugly, modest, pious and humorless, but unfailingly benevolent. He was taught business from childhood, but John D. II did not show any ability: as soon as he came to the stock exchange, he lost a million, after which he was not allowed there.

Showing inability to engage in business, John D. II turned to charity. Rockefeller Jr. created trust funds for members of his family and provided money at the disposal of funds controlled by the family. He also solved small everyday problems. It gave him pleasure to choose wallpaper for the walls, decide which gate to put at the entrance to the family estate, etc.

John D. subsidized the purchase of land for the UN headquarters in New York and built the Rockefeller Center. He donated seventy-five million dollars to charity.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. graduated from Brown University with degree bachelor's degree and taught at the Sunday church school, interpreting the Bible. He directed his efforts to organizing meetings of students with all sorts of celebrities: politicians, writers, preachers.

John D. II, nicknamed the Kind, was short and always spoke quietly, but everyone around him reckoned with his opinion. Order reigned in his family, established once and for all. John II brought up all his children harshly - he had five sons and a daughter, and when his sons got married, he began to control the behavior of his daughters-in-law.

John D. II, like his father, lived a long life, and died in 1960 at the age of eighty-six.

The third generation of Rockefellers: sons John D. III (1906-1978), Nelson Aldrich (1908-1979), Lawrence S. (b. 1910), Winthrop (b. 1912) and David (b. 1915) and daughter Abby Mose.

In 1967, there were 23 people in the fourth generation of Rockefellers. The brothers were all directors of Rockefeller Center Inc. and Rockefeller Brothers Inc., founded in 1946, and trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation. But none of the brothers ever actively participated in the management of any company of the Standard Oil Trust, although all of them held in one or another of these companies after college, minor posts, and some temporary directorships.

The brothers divided spheres and areas of influence among themselves.

John D. III headed non-profit, philanthropic institutions, David - banking and financial, Lawrence was in charge of new investments, Nelson and Winthrop were directly involved in political activities. All brothers participated indirectly in politics by funding the Republican Party.

Latin America is Nelson's dominion, the East is John D III's dominion, David, as head of a bank with over 200 foreign branches, supervised all parts of the world.

Lawrence was engaged in Africa. The brothers, although they were interested in making money, did not consider the possession and accumulation of it as an end in itself; they only did it to "prove their abilities." They did not like to talk about money and tried to turn the conversation to the topic of moral and ethical values.

John D Rockefeller III - a financier-politician who united together the governments of countries in which Rockefeller bank branches, economic sectors and cultural institutions, he served as chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation and the General Education Board.

During World War II, John D III was a lieutenant commander in the United States Naval Reserve, by the end of 1945 he was special assistant to the undersecretary of the Navy. In 1951, he became a consultant to the Dulles Mission to Japan in the negotiations for a peace settlement and a member of the American delegation to the San Francisco conference to conclude a peace treaty with Japan.

Nelson was chairman of the Rockefeller Center before becoming Governor of New York State in 1958. Nelson served three terms as Governor of the State of New York, serving as Federal Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs from 1940-1944, Assistant Secretary of State from 1944-1945, and Chairman of the Advisory Council on American Affairs from 1950-1951. international development, in 1953-1954 - Deputy Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, in 1954-1955 - Special Assistant to the President of the United States. But the highest rung of the state ladder, occupied by Nelson, was the post of Vice President of the United States (1974-1977).

Lawrence Rockefeller is an entrepreneurial capitalist who owns luxury hotels and state-of-the-art businesses.

Due to the fact that Lawrence often got involved in adventures, he was sometimes called a "risk capitalist." In 1965, he was chairman of Rockefeller Brothers Inc., Caneel Bay Plockation Inc., Rockefeller Center Inc., director of Filature e Tissaj African, chairman of Estade Good Hope, and Dorado Beach Wanted Corporation.

Lawrence was a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Faculty Corporation, Trustee of the Young Women's Christian Association, Director of the American Urban and Urban Development Association, Chairman of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Trustee and President of the American Conservation Association, and Vice President of the New York Zoological Society. etc.

Winthrop Rockefeller is the most militant of the Rockefellers; in 1941 he joined the army as a private and ended his career as a lieutenant colonel. As part of the 77th Infantry Regiment, he participated in the capture of Guam Leyte and Okinawa and was awarded the Bronze Star with Oak Leaves and Purple Heart medals.

Winthrop Rockefeller was the Republican Governor of Arkansas from 1966-1970. He called himself an “investment specialist”, carried out large real estate transactions and implemented grandiose development projects. Agriculture in Arkansas. He was one of the directors of the Union National Bank of Little Rock and ran his own company, Win Rock Enterprises, in Arkansas.

David Rockefeller is chairman of the super-powerful, second largest bank in the country, Chase Manhatgen Bank, one of the "big three" largest commercial banks in the world (and his relative, a member of the William Rockefeller branch, is chairman of the First National City Bank of New York). York, another member of the Big Three).

He was one of the directors of B.F. Goodrich Company, Rockefeller Brothers, Inc., and the insurance giant Equitable Life Assurance Society, and chairman of Morningside Heights, Inc., an apartment building company.

During World War II, he was an army captain, then a director and trustee of various Rockefeller foundations and museums, and a member of the Board of Regents of Harvard University, where he studied. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

At home, David often hosted monarchs visiting the United States. Sydney J. Weinberg said about this: “David always has some emperor, shah or some other bigwig, and he always gives breakfasts in their honor. If I went to all the breakfasts that he arranges for these guests, I would have no time to work.

The press accused David of selling weapons to Portugal and South Africa, commanding the US Congress with the help of figureheads, and using the CIA to secure his investments around the world.

A family of industrialists, politicians and bankers, one of the richest families in the world.

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Subtitles

family members

Ancestors

• William Rockefeller Sr. (1810-1906) - Eliza Davison (1813-1889)
  • John Davison Rockefeller (1839-1937) - son of William Rockefeller Sr., married to Laura Rockefeller (1839-1915)
  • William Rockefeller Jr. (1841-1922) - son of William Rockefeller Sr.
  • Franklin Rockefeller (1845-1917) - son of William Rockefeller Sr., married to Helen Elizabeth Scofield

Descendants of John Davison Rockefeller

• Elizabeth Rockefeller(1866-1906) - daughter of John D. Rockefeller, married to Charles Strong
  • Margaret Rockefeller Strong (1897-1985) - daughter of Elizabeth Rockefeller
• Alta Rockefeller(1871-1962) - daughter of John D. Rockefeller
  • John Rockefeller Prentice (1902-1972) - son of Alta Rockefeller
    • Abra Prentice Wilkin (born 1942) - daughter of John Rockefeller-Prentice
• Edith Rockefeller(1872-1932) - daughter of John D. Rockefeller, married to Harold Fowler McCormick
• John Davison Rockefeller Jr.(1874-1960) son of John D. Rockefeller, married to Abby Aldrich (1874-1948)
  • Abigail Aldrich Rockefeller (1903-1976) - daughter of John D. Rockefeller Jr.
  • John Davison Rockefeller III (1906-1978) - son of John D. Rockefeller Jr., married to Blanchett Ferry Hooker
    • John Davison Rockefeller IV (1937) - son of John D. Rockefeller III, married to Sharon Percy
      • Justin Aldrich Rockefeller (1979) - son of John D. Rockefeller IV
    • Hope Aldrich Rockefeller (1946) - son of John D. Rockefeller III
    • Alida Rockefeller Messinger (1949) - daughter of John D. Rockefeller III
  • Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (1908-1979) - son of John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1 marriage - Mary Clark Todhunter, 2 marriage - Margaret Fitler
    • Rodman Clark Rockefeller (1932-2000) - son of Nelson Aldrich-Rockefeller
      • Millie Rockefeller (1955) - daughter of Rodman Clark Rockefeller
    • Stephen Clark Rockefeller (1936) - son of Nelson Aldrich-Rockefeller
    • Michael Clarke Rockefeller (1938-1961) - son of Nelson Aldrich-Rockefeller
    • Fitler Mark Rockefeller (1967) - son of Nelson Aldrich-Rockefeller
  • Laurence Spelman Rockefeller (1910-2004) - son of John D. Rockefeller Jr., married to Maria French
    • Laura Spelman Rockefeller Hesin (1936) - daughter of Laurence Spelman Rockefeller
    • Marion French Rockefeller (1938) - daughter of Laurence Spelman Rockefeller
    • Dr. Lucy Rockefeller (1941) - daughter of Laurence Spelman Rockefeller
  • Winthrop Aldrich Rockefeller (1912-1973) - son of John D. Rockefeller Jr.
    • Winthrop Paul Rockefeller (1948-2006) - son of Winthrop Aldrich Rockefeller
  • David Rockefeller (1915-2017) - son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
    • David Rockefeller Jr. (1941) - son of David Rockefeller
    • Abigail Rockefeller (1943) - daughter of David Rockefeller
    • Neva Rockefeller Goodwin (1944) - daughter of David Rockefeller
    • Dulany Margaret Rockefeller (1947) - daughter of David Rockefeller
    • Gilder Richard Rockefeller (1949-2014) - son of David Rockefeller married to Nancy King
    • Eileen Rockefeller (1952) - daughter of David Rockefeller

Literature

• Abels, Jules. The Rockefeller Billions: The Story of the World's Most Stupendous Fortune. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1965.
• Aldrich, Nelson W. Jr. Old Money: The Mythology of America's Upper Class. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988.
• Allen, Gary. The Rockefeller File. Seal Beach, California: 1976 Press, 1976.
• Boorstin, Daniel J. The Americans: The Democratic Experience. New York: Vintage Books, 1974.
• Brown, E. Richard. Rockefeller Medicine Men: Medicine and Capitalism in America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.
• Caro, Robert A. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. New York: Vintage, 1975.
• Chernow, Ron. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. London: Warner Books, 1998.
• Collier, Peter, and David Horowitz. The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976.
• Elmer, Isabel Lincoln. Cinderella Rockefeller: A Life of Wealth Beyond All Knowing. New York: Freundlich Books, 1987.
• Ernst, Joseph W., editor. "Dear Father"/"Dear Son: " Correspondence of John D. Rockefeller and John D. Rockefeller Jr. New York: Fordham University Press, with the Rockefeller Archive Center, 1994.
• Flynn, John T. God's Gold: The Story of Rockefeller and His Times. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1932.
• Fosdick, Raymond B. John D. Rockefeller Jr.: A Portrait. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956.
• Fosdick, Raymond B. The Story of the Rockefeller Foundation. New York: Transaction Publishers, Reprint, 1989.
• Gates, Frederick Taylor. Chapters in My Life. New York: The Free Press, 1977.
• Gitelman, Howard M. Legacy of the Ludlow Massacre: A Chapter in American Industrial Relations. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988.
• Gonzales, Donald J., Chronicled by. The Rockefellers at Williamsburg: Backstage with the Founders, Restorers and World-Renowned Guests. McLean, Virginia: EPM Publications, Inc., 1991.
• Hanson, Elizabeth. The Rockefeller University Achievements: A Century of Science for the Benefit of Humankind, 1901-2001. New York: The Rockefeller University Press, 2000.
• The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
• Harr, John Ensor, and Peter J. Johnson. The Rockefeller Conscience: An American Family in Public and in Private. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1991.
• Hawke, David Freeman. John D.: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers. New York: Harper & Row, 1980.
• Hidy, Ralph W. and Muriel E. Hidy. Pioneering in Big Business: History of the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), 1882-1911. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955.
• Jonas, Gerald. The Circuit Riders: Rockefeller money and the Rise of Modern Science. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1989.
• Josephson, Emanuel M. The Federal Reserve Conspiracy and the Rockefellers: Their Gold Corner. New York: Chedney Press, 1968.
• Josephson, Matthew. The Robber Barons. London: Harcourt, 1962.
• Kert, Bernice. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family. New York: Random House, 2003.
• Klein, Henry H. Dynastic America and Those Who Own It. New York: Kessinger Publishing, Reprint, 2003.
• Kutz, Myer. Rockefeller Power: America's Chosen Family. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1974.
• Lundberg, Ferdinand. America's Sixty Families. New York: Vanguard Press, 1937.
• Lundberg, Ferdinand. The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today. New York: Lyle Stuart, 1968.
• Lundberg, Ferdinand. The Rockefeller Syndrome. Secaucus, New Jersey: Lyle Stuart, Inc., 1975.
• Manchester, William R. A Rockefeller Family Portrait: From John D. to Nelson. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1959.
• Moscow, Alvin. The Rockefeller Inheritance. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1977.
• Nevins, Allan. John D. Rockefeller: The Heroic Age of American Enterprise. 2 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940.
• Nevins, Allan. Study In Power: John D. Rockefeller, Industrialist and Philanthropist. 2 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1953.
• Okrent, Daniel. Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center. New York: Viking Press, 2003.
• Reich, Cary. The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer 1908-1958. New York: Doubleday, 1996.
• Roberts, Ann Rockefeller. The Rockefeller Family Home: Kykuit. New York: Abbeville Publishing Group, 1998.
• Rockefeller, David. Memoirs. New York: Random House, 2002.
• Rockefeller, Henry Oscar, ed. Rockefeller Genealogy. 4 vols. 1910 - ca.1950.
• Rockefeller, John D. Random Reminiscences of Men and Events. New York: Doubleday, 1908; London: W. Heinemann. 1909; Sleepy Hollow Press and Rockefeller Archive Center, (Reprint) 1984.
• Roussel, Christine. The Art of Rockefeller Center. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2006.
• Scheiffarth, Engelbert. Der New Yorker Gouverneur Nelson A. Rockefeller und die Rockenfeller im Neuwieder Raum Genealogisches Jahrbuch, Vol 9, 1969, p16-41.
• Sealander, Judith. Private Wealth and Public Life: Foundation Philanthropy and the Reshaping of American Social Policy, from the Progressive Era to the New Deal. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.
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Rothschilds and Rockefellers- Surnames are well-known. These are the families of the world's largest financiers, whose performance assessments vary. Some attribute to them almost a global conspiracy and secret control of all global processes(), others simply position them as rich people, the rest declare the loss of their influence. Let's get acquainted with the history of these families and try to figure out what made them so wealthy.

History of the Rockefellers

Rockefellers- American family of financial tycoons, manufacturers, politicians. The dynasty was founded by John Davison Rockefeller, who, together with his brother William and other partners, created the oil company Standard Oil in 1870. John Rockefeller was the first in the history of the planet dollar billionaire. He managed to achieve such success due to a sharp increase in demand for gasoline and petroleum products, in addition, Rockefeller pursued an aggressive policy of mergers and acquisitions and bought many competitors, creating, in fact, a monopoly.

It was not until the early 1990s that antitrust legislation was passed in the United States, which forced Rockefeller to split up his oil empire, although the tycoon retained controlling stakes in new firms and was even able to increase his fortune. Rockefeller is known for his tough business approach, he did not spare competitors and took advantage of market conditions. In particular, the growth of railway tariffs to ruin and absorb rivals.

John Rockefeller was a famous philanthropist and patron of the arts. He supported medical and educational institutions, founded the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as two universities.

The only son of an oil tycoon, John Rockefeller Jr., initially continued his father's business in the oil industry, but then became involved in real estate. He built Rockefeller Center, one of the largest office buildings in New York. John Rockefeller Jr. was also involved in financial activities, in particular, he was a co-owner of Chase Bank.

David Rockefeller is the grandson of the founder of the dynasty, John Rockefeller, today he is the head of the family. He graduated from Harvard, studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and defended his thesis in economics from the University of Chicago. David is a supporter of globalization, the creation of a world government, he opposes national self-identification and the isolation of individual states. David tends to think on a global scale. In particular, he considers it necessary to regulate the population of the planet due to a possible lack of food resources and drinking water in the future, and also advocates the reduction of harmful emissions into the atmosphere.

The Rockefellers maintain their serious position in business. They participate in the control of the following companies:

• Exxon Mobil (successor to Standard Oil);
• Xerox;
• Boeing;
• New York Life insurance company
• Pfizer

The Rockefellers influence the economic, political and social life USA and other countries.
As you can see from the list, all the means of the family are diversified. However, their activities do not give grounds to assume the existence of a "world conspiracy" and a desire to rule the whole world. The behavior of the Rockefellers is natural for people with such a level of wealth, and integration and globalization are normal trends in the development of mankind.

Rothschilds

The capital of the Rothschilds began to form in the 19th century Mayer Rothschild, who began with a usury shop inherited from his father in the ghetto in Frankfurt. Gradually expanding the range of services, issuing loans and being very punctual at the same time, the businessman increased his capital.

He managed to build a relationship with Prince Wilhelm, his house became a supplier of antiques for the royal court, and later became Wilhelm's banker. He expanded ties and collaborated with other influential people, in particular with the Minister of Finance.

Mayer had five children, their names were Solomon, James, Nathan, Carl and Amschel. The father competently disposed of the state, he allowed the children to inherit equal shares, while explaining to them that they needed to work together. It was this close cooperation that allowed the Rothschild family to reach a new level of prosperity. Having dispersed to the countries of Europe, Mayer's children kept in touch with each other, supported each other.

This is how the financial empire of the Rothschilds was built. The family was involved not only in economic, but also in political and religious affairs. The Rothschilds influenced the members royal families, bishops, bankers. The ability of the Rothschilds to establish business relationships and build a quality business reputation determined good relationship to them.

It should be noted the activities of Nathan Rothschild in the UK, where he was involved in finance, the supply of raw materials for industry and the sale of jewelry. Also great is the role of the elder brother Amschel, who, to the best of his ability, managed joint activities families.

As a result of long efforts, the family managed to become the largest creditors of the European states of that time. A special role in this was played by the Napoleonic Wars, which required large financial investments from governments.

It should be noted that in order to build relations with the monarchies of Europe, the Rothschilds at first supplied weapons and goods for the army almost for free, although then they began to raise prices.

In addition, Nathan Rothschild successfully played on the stock exchange, when he learned that England had defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, he appeared at the stock exchange and sat there with a gloomy face. Investors concluded that the UK had lost and began hastily dumping papers that were bought at a low price by agents of the Rothschilds.

When it turned out that Napoleon had lost, Rothschild immediately received a huge fortune. Nathan holds the Guinness World Record for being the most successful financier of all time.

This period of family history is characterized by the presence of an extensive system of communications and messaging. This allowed the Rothschilds to keep abreast of events taking place in various territories and make advanced financial decisions.

Further heirs of the family only increased their fortune and strengthened their weight in financial sector. In particular, the Rothschilds were one of the initiators of the creation of the US Federal Reserve System (FRS).. At the same time, businessmen tried to be non-public, not to advertise their activities. Today the head of the family is Nathaniel Rothschild, his sister Emma is an economist of world renown.

The financial interests of the Rothschilds extend mainly to Europe. The family is actively involved in a number of charitable projects.

The name of the Rothschilds is surrounded by many secrets and prejudices, it is this family that many associate with the so-called "Jewish conspiracy". However, with a calm look at the activities of this family, it becomes clear that these are just very talented businessmen who were able to spread their influence around the world and maintain this power to this day. It is unlikely that they have a goal to destroy the world, rather they want to maintain peace and tranquility in order to continue doing business.

Family relationships

The Rothschilds and Rockefellers often worked as part of a business partnership, buying shares in each other's assets, participating in projects of colleagues. There was no particularly sharp competition between them; wealthy families preferred to negotiate.

To date, the families have agreed on a strategic partnership and a merger of some of their assets. Rothschild investment company RIT Capital Partners buys a stake in the Rockefeller group. This will allow the Rothschilds to strengthen their influence in the US market.

Impact on the global financial system

Like any wealthy family, the Rothschilds and Rockefellers have a serious impact on the global banking and financial systems. However, one should not exaggerate the power of families, whatever their connections and wealth, they are just successful businessmen. They can make investment decisions, develop certain industries, lobby their interests at the state level. But attributing control over the global financial system and ambitions of world domination to two families is absurd. Modern world- too complex and multifactorial system to be managed by a narrow group of people.

Rockefellers and Rothschilds are an example of how you can build and save business and large fortunes with the help of the right organization of processes and communications. Perhaps the main resource of families has always been information - they studied the world around them, created communication networks and knew what would happen in the future. Perhaps the thesis “who owns the information, owns the world” is the main secret of the success of these families.

January 29, 1874, John Davison Rockefeller Jr. was born - an American oilman, financier, son of the first billionaire in history and the man thanks to whom the Rockefellers became a legendary dynasty.

The surname Rockefeller and the word "wealth" are synonymous. According to the famous political scientist Nikolai Zlobin, the Rockefellers are the icons of the American economic and political culture, symbols of America's golden age. But the dynasty is gradually losing its status - there are more and more relatives, and billions are concentrated in other hands. Nevertheless, the Rockefellers still exist. “Members of this family influence, firstly, the general mood of the American political establishment,” Zlobin notes. “There are a lot of their representatives among large law firms, lobbying firms, in the media, military structures. not what it once was."

"RG" has collected the most interesting facts from the life of the famous dynasty.

1. Horse thief grandfather

The father of the first billionaire in history, William Rockefeller, was born in 1810. Officially, he was engaged in the sale of medicines. However, he was not an ordinary pharmacist, did not have a special education and traded drugs, collaborating with various healers. William traveled the northeastern United States selling suspicious medicinal potions. In 1849, when John Rockefeller, William's son, was 10 years old, the family urgently had to change their place of residence, and the move was like an escape. The reason for it, as evidenced by the documents, was very weighty - William Rockefeller was accused of horse stealing.

2. Marry a deaf-mute

Eliza Davison was the mother of the richest man in the world. When she first saw William, who, participating in another fraud, posed as a deaf-mute, she exclaimed: "I would marry this man if he were not deaf-mute!" William quickly realized that this was a profitable party - his father gave Eliza $ 500 dowry. Soon they got married, and two years later John Rockefeller Sr. was born.

Eliza did not part with her husband, finding out that he not only hears everything perfectly, but, on occasion, swears no worse than a drunken lumberjack. She did not leave her husband even when he brought his mistress Nancy Brown into the house, and she - in turn with Eliza - began to give birth to William's children.

My husband went to work at night. He disappeared into the darkness, without explaining where and why he was going, and returned a few months later at dawn - Eliza woke up from the sound of a pebble hitting the window pane. She ran out of the house, threw back the bolt, opened the gate, and her husband drove into the yard - on a new horse, in a new suit, and sometimes with diamonds on his fingers. A handsome man made good money: he took prizes at shooting competitions, he briskly traded glass under the sign "The world's best emeralds from Golconda!" and successfully posed as a famous herbal doctor. Neighbors called him Bill the Devil: some considered William a professional player, others considered him a bandit.

After several years of wandering life, the Rockefeller family finally settled in Cleveland, but not because Big Bill - as William Rockefeller was nicknamed among horse dealers - settled down. Just one fine day in 1855, he left for an unknown destination, marrying a certain Margaret, a very young girl who knew him as Dr. William Livingston.

3. Business from the cradle

“From a young age, my mother and priest inspired me to work and save,” recalled John Rockefeller. “Business” was part of the family upbringing. Even in early childhood, John bought a pound of sweets, divided it into small piles and sold it at a premium to his own sisters. At the age of seven, he sold the turkeys he had grown to his neighbors, and he lent the $50 he earned from this to a neighbor at 7% per annum.

“He was a very quiet boy,” one of the townspeople recalled many years later, “he always thought.” From the outside, John looked distracted: it seemed that the child was constantly struggling with some insoluble problem. The impression was deceptive - the boy had a tenacious memory , grip and unshakable calmness: playing checkers, he harassed his partners, thinking for half an hour about each move.

At the same time, he was a sensitive boy: when his sister died, John ran into the backyard, threw himself on the ground, and lay there all day. Yes, and having matured, Rockefeller did not become such a monster as he was sometimes portrayed: once he asked about a classmate whom he once liked and, having learned that she was widowed and in poverty, the owner of Standard Oil immediately assigned her a pension.

4. Paid too much

John Rockefeller never graduated from high school. At 16, with a three-month accounting course under his belt, he began looking for work in Cleveland, where his family then lived. Six weeks later, he took a job as an assistant accountant at the Hewitt & Tuttle trading company.

At first he was paid 17 dollars a month, and then - 25. When receiving them, John felt guilty, finding the reward excessively high. In order not to waste a single cent, the thrifty Rockefeller bought a small ledger from his first salary, where he wrote down all his expenses, and carefully kept it all his life. As for work, it was his only job for hire. At the age of 18, John D. Rockefeller became the junior partner of businessman Maurice Clark.

Helped a new company to get on its feet Civil War 1861-1865. The warring armies paid generously for provisions, and partners supplied them with flour, pork and salt. By the end of the war in Pennsylvania, near Cleveland, oil was discovered, and the city was at the center of an oil rush. By 1864, Clark and Rockefeller were already in full swing with Pennsylvania oil. A year later, Rockefeller decided to focus only on oil, but Clark was against it. Then, for $72,500, John bought his share from a partner and plunged headlong into the oil business.

5. Oil at any cost

In 1870, Rockefeller created his famous "Standard Oil". Together with his friend and business partner Henry Flagler, he began to gather disparate oil producing and oil refining enterprises into a single powerful trust. Competitors could not resist him, Rockefeller put them before a choice: unification or ruin. If beliefs did not work, the most severe methods were used. For example, "Standard Oil" reduced prices in the local market of a competitor, forcing him to work at a loss. Or Rockefeller sought to stop the supply of oil to recalcitrant refiners.

By 1879, the "war of conquest" was actually over. The Rockefeller company controlled 90% of the oil refining capacity in the United States. But in 1890, the Sherman antitrust law was passed, aimed at combating monopolies. Until 1911, Rockefeller and his partner managed to circumvent this law, however then Standard Oil was divided into thirty-four companies (virtually all of today's major American oil companies trace their history back to Standard Oil).

6. "Salary" for a fly

Rockefeller was married to Laura Celestina Spelman. He once remarked: "Without her advice, I would have remained a poor man."

Biographers write that Rockefeller did his best to teach children to work, modesty and unpretentiousness. John created at home a kind of model of a market economy: he appointed his daughter Laura "director" and ordered the children to keep detailed ledgers. Each child received a few cents for killing a fly, for sharpening a pencil, for an hour of music lessons, for a day of abstaining from sweets. the children had their own garden bed, where the weed work also had its price.

7. Owner of factories, ships, groves

In 1917, the personal fortune of John Rockefeller was estimated at 900-1200 million dollars, which was 2.5% of the then GDP of the United States. In the modern equivalent, Rockefeller owned approximately $150 billion - he is still the richest of people. By the end of his life, Rockefeller, in addition to shares in each of the 34 Standard Oil subsidiaries, owned 16 railroad and six steel companies, nine banks, six shipping companies, nine real estate firms and three orange groves.

Rockefeller's charitable donations during his lifetime exceeded $500 million. Of these, about 80 million dollars were received by the University of Chicago, at least 100 million - by the Baptist church, of which he and his wife were parishioners. John Rockefeller also created and funded the New York Institute medical research, Board of Education and the Rockefeller Foundation.

8. Business at war

The new head of the dynasty - John D. Rockefeller II (junior) turned out to be a worthy son of his father. The First World War brought the Rockefeller family 500 million dollars in net profit. The Second World War turned out to be an even more profitable enterprise - tank and aircraft engines required gasoline, and it was produced at the Rockefeller factories around the clock. The result was 2 billion dollars of net profit received during the war years.

Rockefeller Jr. married the daughter of one of America's most influential political figures of the early twentieth century, Senator Nelson Aldrich, who for a long time enjoyed almost the same influence in Washington as the country's presidents.

9 Bug Collector

John Rockefeller Jr. left luxurious palaces and villas to his five sons and daughter. In winter, the young Rockefellers lived in New York in a nine-story family mansion. They had their own clinic, special colleges, swimming pools, tennis courts, concert and exhibition halls. The 3,000-acre Rockefeller estate has riding arenas, a velodrome, home theater, worth half a million dollars, ponds for sailing on yachts and more. The equipment of one game room alone cost the child-loving oil king $520,000.

When the youngest of the brothers (David) grew up, each received at his disposal city mansions, summer villas and other real estate necessary for social life. As for David leading today financial business family, then, according to the American press, his only hobby is collecting beetles. There are 40 thousand of them in the collection, David Rockefeller, according to newspapers, always carries with him a bottle for caught insects.

10. But Abramovich is richer

Rockefeller Financial Services now manages $34 billion in assets. Among them are the Vallares oil and gas group, a stake in Johnson & Johnson, Dell, Procter & Gamble and Oracle. The majority of the company's shares are owned by the Rockefeller family. But the personal fortune of David Rockefeller is estimated (according to "Forbes") at only 2.5 billion dollars.

At the same time, the personal fortune of Russian businessman Roman Abramovich "Forbes" estimates at 10.2 billion. The Russian is now actively investing in foreign companies. One of the latest major purchases was a 23.3% stake in the British telecommunications group Truphone, which cost £75 million. Experts estimate that Abramovich's art collection is worth at least a billion dollars. In January 2013, he bought a collection of 40 works by Ilya Kabakov, the approximate cost of which is $60 million.

A few years ago, Abramovich became the buyer of a 70-acre estate on the island of St. Barth in the Caribbean. The land on which the estate is located was once owned by David Rockefeller. The cost of Abramovich's new acquisition is $89 million. The estate includes several bungalows with ocean views, tennis courts, swimming pools and dance pavilions.