The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

by T.J. Stiles

assets at full market value at the moment of his death, in January of that year, he would have taken one out of every twenty dollars in circulation, including cash and demand deposits.2

he had dominated railroad and steamboat transportation between New York and New England (thus earning the nickname “Commodore”).

The vast majority of businesses remained partnerships or personal proprietorships. As a business historian notes, a corporation was “considered appropriate only when the enterprise was intended to perform a public service,” such as the construction of a bridge or turnpike.