In the Gilded Ages, I believe the American business owners were considered both the captains of industry and robber barons. If you were a captain of industry, you were a business owners that had a positive effect on the American economy while being a robber baron meant the exact opposite. Robber barons were business owners that had a negative effect on the American economy. I think there were captains of industry but there were also robber barons. Some robber barons included Marshall Field, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, and Russell Sage. These four wealthy individuals were known as robber barons because even though their businesses brought in fortunes they still paid their workers very little. They made their workers work in poor and dangerous