How A Family Of Watchmakers Became America's Oldest Billionaires

Can you have royalty without a monarchy?
Some say that the lack of a King or Queen in the United States of America proves that the land of the free is free of a ruling class.
But judging from how the public rolls out the red carpet for certain family dynasties, it seems humans have a natural urge to worship elites. Some family trees reach this status through political empire, fortune, celebrity, or the arts.
For the DuPont family, their rise to the top was through a vast business enterprise that influenced politics but started with a humble French watchmaker way back in the 1700s. Now they are one of America’s preeminent industrialists and have been one of the nation’s richest families since the mid-19th century. They’ve also been dogged with controversy which is how you’ve heard of them even if you didn’t think you’d heard of them.
So how did one of America’s most elite families get its start overseas? And how influential are they? And is their political legacy one of respect or meddling? It’s time to learn How History Works as we explore ‘How A Watchmaker Started One Of the Oldest Fortune In The World’.
------
#History #business #dupont
Link To My Other Channel: / howmoneyworks
Written By: Sam Ely
Video Created By: Gabriela Gutierrez
Footage Courtesy of: Getty Images
Music Provided By: Epidemic Sound
For sponsorship inquiries, please contact [e-mail]
-----
Sources
www.britannica.com/topic/du-P...
www.encyclopedia.com/people/s...
www.monticello.org/thomas-jef...
blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/20...
www.hagley.org/about-us
www.battlefields.org/learn/bi...
abcnews.go.com/Business/story...
www.haaretz.com/us-news/2019-...
ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/manhatt...

[@keanudupont]

As a duPont who's ancestors moved to Africa instead of America, this is quite an interesting video for me.

[@ElectrostatiCrow]

Let me guess South Africa?

[@keanudupont]

@ItachisCrowy Eswatini but close enough

[@ElectrostatiCrow]

Pretty cool.@@keanudupont

[@innocentgoitseone3715]

Why do whites like to say u moved into Africa. When u invaded. Nobody invited u guys.

[@AjSingh88]

Are u rich or middle class or working class?

[@ryancroke6013]

As someone who works for a company that used to be part of du pont, I constantly hear about the good old days under them, they are a fascinating company all around.

[@DeadLeprechaun]

Same boat, same story. The new owners where I work, were mentioned near the end

[@AllTwoCentsibleGuy]

Same and same. It was interesting to hear war stories from the now retired "Du Pont-ers" about how my company couldn't help but make swaths of profit. It's no wonder the family was so influential.

[@mamotalemankoe3775]

To think you didn't even have time to get to teflon and all the crap surrounding it. It shows just how long and decorated their track record is. I had no idea they went that far back. Great video.

[@JuniorExecutive1987]

With just 12 minutes to tell such a vast story, this does a fair job of demonstrating how nuanced history is. The DuPonts are neither wholly good nor evil and consisted of hundreds of individuals in eras and situations making the decisions that appeared right in the time.

[@muttitan5161]

ever seen the movie dark waters, or even read about what Teflon is. Dupont is massively responsible for serious fraud and intentional harm to milllions of people.

[@crazy_mind-ox8if]

Cool vid. Didn't realize how big the Dupont corp was or how far back it went. Fascinating side of US business.

[@dsolis7532]

Being “heroes of liberal democracy” and “profiting a lot from war” are not contradictions… are consequences

[@decepticon8000]

💯

[@ericpowell1878]

I had no idea. Awesome video. Lov3 both your channels

[@jasongraham8250]

Didn’t even mention napalm.

[@evermendozapy]

Would be interesting a book o series of book detailing how families rise and fall through time in history... I'm sure there are more of this !! How Family works?*

[@Pistolita221]

From what I can tell most families who "make it" like the DuPont or Rockefellers etc. all stay wealthy, at least over 50%.

[@zaco-km3su]

@@Pistolita221 For a time. The Rockefellers have lost most of their wealth. Now it's just several billions spread among 70 descendants. Many of them have started partying though which means they will lose the money.

[@pyeitme508]

Wow I think the du Pont family might have sponsored this video. XD

[@wiktorkokosik8747]

Great video! Didn't watch it... yet.

[@otis3744]

havent*

[@SgtCarter69]

You used Star Wars Clone Wars intro song as your intro song ! Nice touch !!

[@mattbowdenuh]

My mother worked for DuPont at their freon plant in Corpus Christie back in the 70s and 80s, before it got closed down. That's about all I knew about the company before this video.

[@Mrbrett1982]

I love your videos. I just assumed DuPont was only a chemical company

[@sourabhmayekar3354]

Nice

[@Pistolita221]

I would love to see a video on the wallenbergs

[@sephondranzer]

I wonder if you can explain how specifically a Gerontocracy. It’s a word we levied against the USSR and something we are recently accused of ourselves, but nobody really explains exactly how this works. Why is it corruption can lead to Gerontocracies? How does that relationship between age and corruption work exactly?

[@alexandervlaescu9901]

It has to do with people refusing to give up influence or power despite them getting older. It also has to do with the fact that older people are more likely to hold more wealth than younger people.

[@masterdecats6418]

They didn’t do it out of the “good of their heart”. They did it because they were first in line for government contracts.

[@decepticon8000]

“He learnt how to manage his schedule” 😂

[@MrUth99]

"Lay Miserhabla"

[@lukeedwards7677]

I think it's about time that this channel try to take on the actual history of the actual Rothschilds - a bit of both how history and money works

[@zaco-km3su]

They're far too involved in the weapons industry.

[@zinjanthropus322]

Didn't they make agent orange?

[@frenchLeon]

Even there, French were at it.

[@BloodyIron]

Holy cow what an incredible history! I'm actually rather won over in supporting the DuPont family and company by this... but a touch cautious anyways...

[@robertburch1998]

The narration makes this un-watchable for me. Can't stand hearing that drop to a lower tone at the end of every sentence.

[@felix_duPont]

lol

[@weksauce]

Will you please hire me to narrate and pronounce words and names correctly? Typically, you get 1 word/name terribly wrong per video, but this one had at least 5.

[@eric.m5790]

i loved this video Until this guy try to make us believe that a Familie that has been rich before the rockerfellars had 1 peny only own 16 billion dollars. Really lame 👎

[@sourabhmayekar3354]

Nice