Captains Of Industry In The Tycoons By Charles R. Morris

In the novel, “The Tycoons” by Charles R. Morris, he explains how Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J.P. Morgan invented the American super economy. In Morris’s novel, he goes in depth of the lives of these men and the experiences that truly made them the group who transformed America’s economy. They transformed the greatest industries of our time: oil, rail, steel, and finance. Not only did they transform America for the better but are also the first captains of industry. I will start with J.P. Morgan who was an art collector, banker, and financier. Morgan was born into a family of wealth and his father’s name was well known in the banking industry. Even though he had a famous family name, he had a mind of his own and

From my understanding, his contribution to forming the American economy was his leadership in creating and expanding the American steel industry. When he was eighteen years old, he took a job at the Pennsylvania Railroad working as the assistant and telegrapher to Thomas Scott, one of the railroads top officials. Through his experience here, he learned about the railroad industry and business overall; three years later, he was promoted to superintendent. While working here, he made many investments and soon realized that investments towards oil brought in a lot of money. After years of doing that, he left the railroad to focus on his own business interests. Once he left, he dedicated most of his time to the steel industry, later resulting in his business called the Carnegie Steel Company which revolutionized steel production in the U.S. From this he started to build plants around the country, using technology and methods that made it faster and more efficient to manufacture steel. This made him a very wealthy man and he continued this for a few more years. Carnegie used a system of vertical integration to maintain his market dominance. Vertical integration is essentially the merging together of two businesses that are at different stages of production. This is when a company expands its business operations into different steps yet on the same production path; an example would be when a manufacturer owns its supplier and/or distributer. The benefits of using this strategy is reducing costs and improving efficiencies by decreasing transportation expenses and reducing turnaround time. This is the system Carnegie used throughout his journey of a business man to keep costs low and profits high. In 1901 he decided to take his fortune and he create many things that focused more on philanthropy and education. I believe that his dedication to the education of the citizens also helped shape America and its economy. He