Andrew Carnegie: One of the Pioneers of the Big Business

Big Business Report University of Phoenix Ursula Murgado Introduction One of the pioneers of the Big Business I chose to research is Andrew Carnegie. In this paper I will include how was his business and how did Mr. Carnegie started his business. I will also talk about how his business grew to the level it did. The good and bad effects of the business in the 19th century, How Mr. Carnegie business affected society today, what were the pros and cons of this business, if this cons and pros still exist. Andrew Carnegie was an industrialist and philanthropist.

Andrew Carnegie was born in November 25, 1835 in Dunfermline, Scotland. He was the son of a handloom weaver. Andrew’s Carnegie parents decide to move to North America in 1848 because of the conditions that they were living. Andrew’s father settled his family in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Carnegie starting working at an early age in a factory getting pay $1. 20 a week. Then at the following year he found a job as a telegraph messenger. By the year 1851 Carnegie became a telegraph operator because of his efforts to get ahead in life.

After two years working as a telegraph messenger Carnegie decides to work at the Pennsylvania Railroad, he was the assistant and telegrapher of Thomas Scott, one of the railroad’s main officials. This job help Carnegie to learn about the railroad industry and also in business. After three years he was promoted to superintendent. Carnegie business was the steel company but he started his investment before he open his own steel company. He started investing in the years 1863 or 1864 and during the war years too. His profits were very high.

First, his share of he” Woodruff Sleeping Car Company , he also invested in the Western Union Telegraph Company, The Iron City Forge, The Columbia Oil Company and the Third National Bank of Pittsburgh”. He also made other investments, that helped him own shares in more than twelve different companies. He was making around $39,000 in investments plus his salary of $2400 dollars a year. He left the Pennsylvania Railroad before the Civil war started. His determination in investing during tough times help him grow his business to the level it did.

Carnegie business in his Steel Industry help him revolutionize the production of steel in the United States. Carnegie was able to construct many steel plants around the United States with the a technology that made the manufacture of steel faster, easier and more productive. Carnegie owned everything he needed in order to become the “King of Steel“. Some of the negative effects of big business in the 19th century was the atmosphere and working conditions of the workers at the time repeatedly change. Technology is another negative effect because the products were not being complete made by an individual.

Immigration was another effect. The positive effect was that more money for this country. A positive effect that Carnegie’s business had on society were his donations to build libraries in the United States and in other English speaking countries. Carnegie funded about 3,000 libraries in 47 US states and other countries. In 1901 he gave two million dollars to create the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburg and the following year he donated the same amount to Washington D. C to found the Carnegie Institution. In my opinion Carnegie did a lot positive things for society.

He was able to accomplish the American dream, as we know he was an Scotland immigrant. One of the negative things was the Homestead Mill strike because it “broke his reputation as a friend of the workers”. The pros of the big business in the 19th century were the benefits that industrialization gave to the people, like how the life of Americans improve and how their wages climbed. The cons was that everything comes with a price. The fact the workers bargain for better wages and better conditions at work was one of them. In my opinion these pros and cons do still exist in some way at this time.  Maybe not at the extent of the 19th century but they still exist .

References Kent, Zachary. Andrew Carnegie, Steel King and Friend to Libraries, Historical America Biographies, 1999. Davidson-Gienapp-Heyrman-Lytle-Stoff:, Nation of Nations: A Concise Narrative of the American Republic, Fourth Edition IV. Global Essay: The United States in an Industrial Age19. The New Industrial Order (1870? 1900) The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2005. American Experience, The Richest Man in the World Andrew Carnegie. The film and more. http://www. pbs. org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/peopleevents/index. html