Sublime

An 1889 act of the Florida legislature set aside some 10 million acres of land to be deeded to entrepreneurs willing to build new railway lines and thereby bolster the state’s economic infrastructure. As a result, Flagler was able to lay claim to eight thousand acres for every mile of track he built. In the end, he would control more than two milli

Interestingly, Hill resembled his contemporary John D. Rockefeller in that he usually did well only by investing in his main area of focus; his many side forays into other projects quite often failed. The one truly notable exception, as we shall see, was his investment in iron ore.

weeks after two gushers were struck. These early days were characterized by extreme boom and bust cycles. Oil went for $16 a barrel in 1859, under 50¢ in 1861, and $8 in 1864.

Morgan made his specialty the refinancing, reorganization, and rationalization of America’s badly overextended and overcapitalized railroads; his “clients” included some of the largest, such as the Erie, the New York Central, and the Pennsylvania.

There was another working theory among Range employees as they searched for a money trail leading to the Smiths: the money was coming from Russia and being funneled through a foundation like Heinz in an attempt to disrupt the U.S. energy industry.

the demise of Northern Securities meant a severe backpedaling in the extent to which Hill’s three lines could now be managed in a shared community of interest—they could not be truly or meaningfully unified at all.