John D. Rockefeller Of Standard Oil, Andrew Carnegie Of Carnegie Steel, And JP Morgan

The turn of the century was a progressive era with many advancements in technology. New industries such as, steel, copper, railroad and meat shipping were formed. Many great men founded, improved and monopolized these industries. Two of these people were Andrew Carnegie, the founder of the steel industry and John D. Rockefeller, who owned a majority of the nation’s oil industry. While these men sometimes achieved their successes through questionable means, they were the pillars of modern society and they brought us to where we are today.

Born on November 25, 1835, in Dunfermline, Scotland, Andrew Carnegie was the second son of Will and Margaret Carnegie. His father was handloom weavers while his mother worked for a local shoemaker. In 1848, the Carnegie family came to America hoping for better economic opportunities and established in Pennsylvania and this is when Andrew Carnegie formal education ended because his family had no money for education. He then got his first job as a bobbin boy at a cotton factory, earning $1.20 a week. After this he had quite a few different job one of which was at the railroad where he made got money and that’s when he was able to make some investments in coal, iron and oil companies and a manufacturer of railroad sleeping cars. In 1865, Carnegie left the railroad job and he continued his ascent in the business world. But because the railroad industry experienced a rapid growth during that time in the United Stated, Carnegie made an investment in the railroad business and by the age of 30th he was the richest person. In the early 1870s, he started working in the steel business, and very soon he became one of the most important people in the field. Despite of his success in 1901, he sold his steel company to banker John Pierpont Morgan for $480 million. Carnegie then dedicated

Henry Ford, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Andrew Carnegie were captains of industry and helped shape America into what it is today. A Captain of Industry is someone who is beneficial to America. While Ford, Vanderbilt, and Carnegie were all in different businesses, they still were able to benefit each other. Vanderbilt helped to transport people from place to place, which boosted the transportation industry. Under his influence, Ford was able to produce automobiles. Vanderbilt and Ford both used Carnegie’s steel to build train tracks and cars. These men all contributed to current American transportation, technology, and businesses. Without them, the United States of America would not have evolved into what it is today. In fact, U.S. steel and

     Let us first look at Mr. Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was a mogul in the steel industry. Carnegie

While Standard Oil did come to basically control the price of oil in the United States, it never engaged in 'predatory', or deep and unnecessary price cutting to push out it's competitors. John McGee states this about how Standard Oil accomplished this by other means: “It is correct that Standard discriminated in price, but it did so to maximize profits given the elasticities of demand of markets in which it sold. It did not use price discrimination to change those elasticities. Anyone who has relied upon price discrimination to explain Standard's dominance would do well to start looking for something else. The place to start is merger” (McGee 168). Carnegie on the other hand preferred to buy out all competitors that were in the same area of production as he was, and consolidate. Through consolidating most steel mills in the Pittsburgh/Pennsylvania area, he was able to control that particular step of the production process in the steel business, therefore maximizing his profits like Rockefeller, but in a different way. Carnegie preferred stable prices and stable business, and Harold Hotelling manages to place Carnegie's view on why he consolidated his mills as such: “This is the fact that of all the purchasers of a commodity, some buy from one seller, some from another, in spite of moderate differences of price. If the purveyor of an

Carnegie gave people several gifts that he used to help himself like Homestead Relief Fund that was worth 4 million dollars, which helped him out in different ways for it for example helped out the steel workers to keep them in a better shape to do more work, kept their small hopes up and gave him a much better image(Doc N, Doc O). Carnegie was able to give away these big gifts because he was lowering the wages of his workers to do so, which The Saturday Globe shows very well in their picture(Doc O). Andrew Carnegie started his business in the american steel industry that he had created because of him studying how the english made steel. Because of him getting so early, compared to his later competitors, in the steel industry he managed to vertical intergrate all the steps for steel production, shipping and selling.

Carnegie, on the other hand, used his method of vertical integration, which would allow him to ultimately defeat J.P. Morgan's threat on the market. Vertical integration is “a strategy where a company expands its business operations into different steps on the same production path, such as when a manufacturer owns its supplier and/or distributor” (Staff, December 2015). So, in Carnegie's instance, he was buying all the smaller companies that he orders

All of the greatest and most successful businessmen have a single thing in common and that's the monopolization and ability to change their company into a tycoon or better yet, to completely monopolize their specific industry. This is what Carnegie accomplished turning him into one of the great industrialist of his era. He was able to take control of the steel business and turn himself into the poor boy from Europe into a wealthy high-class citizen of America ("Andrew Carnegie" Science). While creating his massive industry by using his efficient steel mill techniques, he had the ability to produce a mass number of steel for a fraction of the cost ultimately driving his competitors out of business. He would then buy up their mills, fix them up to cooperate with the Carnegie Steel Company standard and produce a larger quantity of steel than he previously did. This cycle repeated until Carnegie ran out of steel mills to buy. At this point he had the power to change and fluctuate his prices to create the consumer to buy his products for whatever cost he best saw fit. Since they were no more competition due to the buying out off all the competitors buy Carnegie, if consumers wanted steel they had to buy from the rate Carnegie was willing to sell it to them. This was the result of Carnegie's monopolization and production of his

Andrew Carnegie became known as one of America’s “builders”, because of his efforts that fueled the economy. Carnegie became such a wealthy man because of the vertical combination strategy he used, which the idea was first used by Gustavus Swift. With that strategy, he bought railroad companies and iron mines. Carnegie searched for ways to make better products cheaper, then he incorporated new machine and techniques that enabled him to track precise costs. He made any wise choice that would help him on the road to

Captains of industry was formed for many people who built huge businesses and help society as a whole. Hence, Captains of Industry was the first big business, railroads oil, steels, banks, these big businesses occupied the center of the economy and that conduct to the demand and shape of strategic interest of the enterprises that gave and rise to the captain of industry. In contrast, Robber Baron were people that got ahead in business by shutting off all competition and mostly using illegal practices. Andrew Carnegie-Steel, John D. Rockefeller-Oil, J.P. Morgan -Bank Andrew Carnegie, his business, which became known as the Carnegie Steel Company steel production in the United States. In fact, he refined very cheaply and he kept accurate

$340 billion. This amount, according to Forbes’s website, is John D. Rockefeller, Sr.’s net wealth in today’s dollars. Mr. Rockefeller built his fortune through the oil industry. He founded the Standard Oil Company, which owned about 90% of American refineries and pipelines. Although John D. Rockefeller, Sr. is arguably the richest man in United States history, he was also a deeply despised man. According to PBS’s video on the Rockefellers, he kept a revolver near his bedside because of death and kidnapping threats he and his family received. These threats were mainly due to the fact that a substantial amount of Americans viewed Mr. Rockefeller as a Robber Baron, or someone who is evil, greedy, corrupt, and exploits workers to become extremely wealthy. The term “Robber Baron” coincides with a greedy, poor, and progressive time in American history that took place after the Civil War and the Reconstruction. It was the Gilded Age (Chernow 226-227, Deane, and O’Donnell).

Owned and operated by Andrew Carnegie, the steel business was able to progress efficiently as an independent organization bringing many benefits to the economy. He ultimately set a modern example to the entire steel industry by revolutionizing the way steel was produced. He brought opportunities to the American people by making steel a cheap and reliable product. It was finally affordable for bridges and skyscrapers to be built. It was feeding national growth by already adding to a prosperous industry. Steel brought higher life, more jobs, and national respect for many Americans. Furthermore, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company brought many similar benefits. The demand for crude oil, back in the early 1900s, was only increasing. It forced the oil industry to expand business and search for new drilling grounds. The new discoveries required many new workers, thus, increasing the number of jobs for Americans and providing

It is undeniable fact that these “captains of industry “played a great role for the economic growth and well being pf the country in different aspects. They were basically the pioneers who came up with different business plan and strategies to make a huge a profit. For instance, Rockefeller had an important role to produce refined oils which is very crucial for foreign currency and overall economic stability of the country. His business ideas and innovations were effective enough to let him became the first billionaire which makes the achievement big deal because he simply he started from almost zero and end up

In addition to focusing on costs and managing his employees, Carnegie lowered the price of steel so much, that his competitors virtually disappeared. Carnegie knew his way around competition and definitely knew how to have an advantage over his competitors. One way he created a competitive advantage for himself was directing his business under vertical integration. In vertical integration, one large company owns many small companies that all contribute to the end result. For example, in order to produce raw materials to yield steel, “He bought the Unity and the Larimer Coke works near Connellsville…,the Scotia Ore Mines in Center County, Pennsylvania, and a ferro-manganese mine in Virginia” (Livesay 130). This allows him to not let his competitors have the same access to raw materials as him. Also, it creates an oligopoly. Small businesses have a very hard time competing against oligopolies, because access to raw materials is very difficult when there are no local merchants. Carnegie also calculated how low his prices needed to be in order to continue to make a profit against

As companies continued to gain high profits from their industrial endeavors, they wanted to grow bigger and bigger. When companies realized that they were in control of all parts of their business they could make the most profit; this is known as horizontal and vertical integration. John D. Rockefeller, co-founder of the Standard Oil Company, “pursued a strategy that came to be known as horizontal integration, in which a dominant corporation buys or forces out most of its competitors” (Shi and Tindall 632). “Instead of depending upon the products or services of other firms, known as middlemen,” the company owns everything it needs in