Andrew Carnegie
• Andrew made his money from stock in the
Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1873 he saw the railroad’s need for steel and got into the steel industry.
• By 1899 Carnegie Steel Company made more steel than all the factories in Great Britain.
• Started new business Practices:
– Making a better product cheaper
– Used new technology
– Used new techniques:
• Accounting practices that allowed his to keep precise records of costs
• He also attracted the best assistants by offering stock in the company.
• To control as much of the steel industry as he could, Carnegie bought out his suppliers
• Coal fields, iron mines, ore freighters, & railroad lines.
• He controlled the raw materials and the transportation systems.
• John D. Rockefeller
• Standard Oil
• Gained control of the competition by buying up other oil companies.
• Natural Selection
• Weeded out less suited individuals and enabled the best adapted to survive.
• Used to justify the doctrine of laissez-faire (the idea that government should stay out of private industry)
• 1890
• Government worried big business would stifle free competition.
• Made it illegal to form antitrust that interfered with free trade between states or with other countries.
• Was hard to enforce because companies would restructure and continue to grow.
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