Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business

Andrew Carnegie emigrated from Scotland to Pittsburgh as a poor boy in 1848, worked his way up through the telegraph and railroad businesses, and built one of the largest steel companies in the world. His Edgar Thomson Works, opened in 1875, used the Bessemer process on a huge scale. Carnegie cut costs relentlessly and practiced vertical integration, owning iron ore mines, coal and coke works, railroads and ships so that his company controlled each stage of production.

In 1901 he sold his company to a group led by banker J. P. Morgan, which formed US Steel, the first corporation valued at over one billion dollars. Carnegie argued in his essay 'Wealth' (1889) that the rich had a duty to use their fortunes for the public good, and he gave away most of his money, funding thousands of libraries. Critics noted that his wealth depended on long hours and low wages for steelworkers.