Andrew Carnegie: A Titan Of Industry

Andrew Carnegie: A Titan of Industry Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish immigrant, who became one of the greatest business men in American history. He was born in Dunfermline, Scotland to a poor household. His family immigrated to the United States when he was a young boy. Once Carnegie arrived in the US one of his first jobs was working in a cotton mill for one-dollar and twenty cents a week. It wasn’t until 1853 when Carnegie’s career took off. In 1853 Andrew Carnegie was hired by Thomas Scott, who worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad. His salary was four-dollars a week. He quickly rose in the companies rank until; he became superintendent of the Pittsburg site. Thomas Scott helped Carnegie make his first investment. He bought five hundred

Carnegie began to invest his money into steel, and as he is well known for Carnegie Steel. Carnegie got together with Sir Henry Bessemer, to create a more efficient way to produce and refine steel. This process sped up, and made it cheaper to produce steel. This helped reap huge profits for Andrew Carnegie, and his stock holders. Carnegie was able to mass produce steel in large quantities, and maintain great margins. The second way Carnegie began to expand his steel empire was through a process called vertical integration. This is the process of buying out all the competition until there is a virtual monopoly in one industry. Carnegie began to buyout all competitors until he owned the entire industry. This solidified Andrew Carnegie as a titan of the steel industry.
 In 1901, Andrew Carnegie was in his sixties, and was considering retiring from business. He consolidated his businesses, and eventually sold them to the famous financier John Pierpont Morgan. The deal was worth four hundred and eighty- million dollars, in today’s money, thirteen point seven billion dollars. This was the largest deal America had ever seen. Carnegie received his payment in fifty-year gold bonds. Once the bonds were delivered he left them in the special vault built for his money. He never touched the money or even looked at it. He considered it his success of his business career, and wanted to preserve it. Carnegie’s net

After Andrew Carnegie died, it is said that he gave away over ninety percent of his net worth. Carnegie gave away an estimated seventy-seven billion dollars in today’s money. Andrew is credited with donating and founding over three thousand libraries, and numerous institutions. Andrew Carnegie believed that investing in education was the best investment, and that a man could never be over