The early Corporation began as little more than individuals making collective bets on high-risk overseas ventures. From these developed the true Corporations of the industrial age, vast vertically-integrated monopolies designed to encourage investment, commerce, and ultimately stomp out competition. In Germany, BESM and Pharm-copia joined forces with local universities to dominate the world-wide chemical industry while in the United States, such giants as Andrew Carnegie and James D. Rockefeller dominated the nation's rail, steel, and oil industries.