Robber Barons In The 19th Century

then realized the demand for steel was very high and he started his own steel company. Carnegie

Without Carnegie, the steel industry, and the second industrial revolution in general, would never have progressed as much as it did. Carnegie did what was necessary to make the steel industry more productive and more efficient, for less money. He was a shrewd, ruthless, businessman who’s aggressiveness made the steel, railroad, and oil industries so economically successful. These characteristics, though not always looked upon as nice or sympathetic, were sometimes necessary. He had paid his time as a poor factory boy, and now it was his turn to live comfortably and aid others less fortunate to work towards the same success.

There were many conflicting views during the Gilded Age. Some viewed those at the top of the socio-economic ladder as robber-barons due to the vast amount of wealth that never seemed to extend to the workers in terms of salary or safety. However, some called them captains of industries, those who bettered the economy and the lives of workers. These people had an enormous positive impact on the country’s businesses and philanthropy on American economy and society. They transformed America into the most powerful industrial nation, leading the country’s charge by building powerful industries.

In the 19th century, the Gilded age was this period of time when America looked like this massive productive country. What people do not know was that in the inside they were this suffering country that had massive poverty and thousands of people without jobs. America was filled with industrialists which are also called Robber Barons. Robber Barons were these people who basically stole fortunes by having their employees work 12 hour days, 7 days a week and getting paid about 15 cents an hour. Andrew Carnegie was a really wealthy businessman who made steel. Carnegie made millions of dollars but in the end he still paid his workers very little. His employees worked long hard days and at the end of the day they got paid hardly nothing. These workers also worked in bad conditions and some of the workers were kids and they were having them do some of the really hard dangerous work. According to a US history author “They received no health benefits, no vacation, and suffered from periodic layoffs because of downturns in the business cycle( The Gilded age pg. 1) The 19th century during the Gilded age most of the big business men where these guys who had massive amounts of money and yet they pay their workers really low wages with bad conditions.

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

Andrew Carnegie built his fortune out of nothing, clawing his way to the top and making his fortune by seeing the expanding usage of steel and quickly jumping on the opportunity, becoming one of the first and biggest steel producers in America, and later the world[2]. With this massive corporation

He established many other steel plants, and in 1892, he merged all of his interests into the Carnegie Steel Company. This act from Carnegie is fitting with one of his most famous quotations, "Put all of your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket." This firm became one of the greatest industrial enterprises in America. Carnegie later sold it to J.P. Morgan's United States Steel Corporation in 1901 for $400 million, which would be a little over $4 billion today! After retiring, Carnegie's fortune was estimated to be as large as half a billion dollars. From that time on, with the philosophy that the rich have a moral obligation to give away their money, he devoted himself to philanthropy. Although ironic, this man of great fortune strongly believed in the merits of poverty for the development of character and work ethic, and determined that wealthy men should not leave their fortunes to their children, but should give it away, claiming "The man who dies thus rich, dies disgraced." The picture of community service, Carnegie is quoted as saying, "Pittsburgh entered the core of my heart when I was a boy, and cannot be torn out. I can never be one hair's breadth less loyal to her, or less anxious to help her in any way, than I have been since I could help anything. My treasure is still with you, and how best to serve Pittsburgh is the question which occurs to me almost every day of my life." Colonel James Anderson, who Carnegie

The term “Robber Baron” describes a business owner who obtained their wealth based on unfair practices (Overview of the Gilded Age, Digital History). During this time immigrants were coming overseas needing jobs to support their families. The business owners took notice of this and took it as an opportunity to make money by paying the immigrants low wages but working them excruciatingly long hours. By doing this, businesses began to increase their income because they weren’t obligated to pay laborers. Thanks to the businessmen of the Gilded Age who treated their companies and laborers unfairly, there are now laws and regulations as to how many hours a person can work in a week. Another positive that came out of these historical figures is, we now

With Henry Frick at Carnegie’s side, they ruled the steel industry and began to draw in large sums of money and quickly became some of the wealthiest men in America. They would make the steel industry extremely powerful, and create a huge workforce to feed the extreme amount of immigrants looking for work in the U.S. This boosted the economy enormously since most people could work in the many steel plants, or as a constructor. Carnegie’s steel was being purchased all over the United States. America was growing upward because the new steel could form taller yet safer buildings. Carnegie made the U.S. one of the most powerful and modern countries in the world through his steel. Steel was not only implemented in new tall buildings, it was also used to replace iron railroads. Carnegie had a major impact on modernizing America and making it powerful. He made America profitable, but through the struggling working class citizens. But, without those hard working citizens, America would not have been built as quickly, or been as

Many of the men who were called "captains of industry," they worked hard to make America an advanced and prosperous nation. "Some of them, however, greed for gain and aggressive buisiness practices earned them the less flattering titles of "robber barons." (United States History Book) Some of the most influential companies of the Gilded Age were the Standard Oil Company, the United States Steel Corporation, and they were founded by two of the "robber barons" John D. Rockfeller, the first American billionaire, founder of the Standard Oil company, and J.P Morgan, the founder of the United States Steel corporation, America's first supercorporation. "The production of steel and iron rose as the demand for improved transportation increased the desire for the resources of the west such as lumber gold, and silver." (http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/gilded/jb_gilded_subj.html) The Gilded Age was a period when many great companies were created, and supported America's inevitable growth in

His business grew immensely after the creation of the bridge when individuals realized the potential of steel. Tom Scott guided Andrew Carnegie into building a steel

Forging the industry, he “vertically-integrated” the business from natural resources to the distribution of steel to neighboring companies. “By the 1890s, he [Carnegie] dominated the steel industry and had accumulated a fortune worth hundreds of millions of dollars” However, to accumulate his wealthy profit, there had to be workers who manufactured these items. As a result, money was pooling into Carnegie’s business and would do so several decades

Andrew Carnegie’s most well know impact was his impact in the steel industry. In Pittsburgh, Andrew Carnegie co-founded his very first steel company in the early 1870’s. He adopted the Bessemer process to make his desire of making steel more cheaply and efficiently capable of happening. By 1889, most of the steel production in the United States was under Andrew Carnegie’s control. The steel industry was doing so well that it outpaced the steel production in the United Kingdom. Along with the United States outpacing the United Kingdom still production, Andrew Carnegie was also one of the wealthiest men in America.

These investments provided him with the opportunity to create his own company Carnegie Steel. According to Biography.com Carnegie “revolutionized steel production in the United States. Carnegie built plants around the country, using technology and methods that made manufacturing steel easier, faster and more productive.” (Steel Tycoon 1)

Looking at Andrew Carnegie`s early life is particularly important in order to understand the magnitude of his achievements. Andrew Carnegie was born in a small town in Scotland. His father, well known for his vast array of knowledge, was a weaver, the main industry in town. Carnegie`s comprehension of entrepreneurship began at an early age. His family could hardly afford to feed their rabbits, so Carnegie recruited other children in the town and would end up naming a rabbit after each child that helped proving the importance of personal investment in their work. After the invention of automated looms, the Carnegie’s lost everything and moved to Pittsburgh. Carnegie worked at a loom factory and soon after was offered a job to deliver messages by telegraph. Five short years after the family moved to Pittsburgh, Carnegie got a job at the Pennsylvania Railroad. Andrew Carnegie, overworked and exhausted because of his involvement in rebuilding telegraph lines and railroad tracks during the Civil War, began his investing career as an entrepreneur after having a mild stroke. He saw the