Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt was born in 1794 on Staten Island, New York. As they say about Dominicans in Major League Base-ball: you don’t walk off the island, you gotta hit your way off. When he was sixteen, Vanderbilt’s mom gave him $100 to clear and plant an eight-acre field. Instead, Vanderbilt bought a two-mast sailboat and started charging for ferrying passengers and goods around New York. It didn’t take him long to save enough to get into where the real money was: steamships. The powers that be in the New York Legislature had granted a thirty-year monopoly for steamship traffic to Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston, a classic move by political entrepreneurs. Fulton was even able to convince the politicians that he couldn’t make money unless he doubled his prices. He set up a fat umbrella for Vanderbilt to shred. (source: Eat People) 一七九四年，范德比爾特（Cornelius Vanderbilt）生於紐約州的斯塔騰島（Staten Island）。大聯盟棒球隊談到多明尼加人是這麼說的：你不是走出這座島，而是靠揮棒出來的。范德比爾特十六歲的時候，母親給他一百美元，去清理八英畝的田地和種植作物。范德比爾特卻將錢拿去買一艘雙桅帆船，開始在紐約附近收費接泊乘客和貨品。沒多久，他就存夠錢，踏進真正有大錢可賺的輪船事業。紐約州議會的權貴給了富爾頓（Robert Fulton）和李文斯頓（Robert Livingston）三十年的輪船運輸獨占權。這正是典型的政治創業家行為。富爾頓甚至說服政治人物，相信除非他將價格加倍，否則賺不到錢。他張起一張肥厚的傘，等著讓范德比爾特去拆毀。