Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business

Role of Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Camegie

Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business

Was Andrew Carnegie a "Robber Baron" or a "Captain of Industry"?

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish American born on 25th November 1835. He was an ordinary person but then he succeeded in becoming an entrepreneur, industrialist and a businessman who made a great contribution towards the expansion of American steel industry in the late 19th century.

The book, "Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business" written by Harold C. Livesay, is a story of the Andrew Carnegie's role as a business man. Harold has done an extensive research for this book and has not only written about Carnegie but has also included lot of information regarding the history of America. This book chronically presents the events of Carnegie who was an immigrant and a poor Scottish boy who made his fortune in America and became the second richest man of the world. He was also an anthropologist; he not only made money but also gave a lot of it in charity. Moreover, he built libraries, museums and other cultural centers and gave numerous personal gifts for the establishment of many trusts. When he passed away, he had given away more than 350 million for people.

Despite all this work, many people consider him as the "robber baron" instead of considering "captain of the industry" because he used some unfair means to succeed in business. This paper discusses the two opinions of people by considering the facts highlighted in book "Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business."

In my opinion Andrew Carnegie was a "captain of industry" because he started his work as an immigrant and tried his best to use his abilities efficiently. There is no doubt in saying that he was also a philanthropist and he made a huge contribution towards the public organizations, for instance he created around 3000 public libraries. Moreover, he worked as an advocate of the "gospel of wealth" which was a program in which rich people shared their wealth and used it for the benefit of the society.

Carnegie has a "robber baron" image because he initiated "Carnegie Steel" and flourished during the (gilded) golden age. In order to be successful in the steel industry, he purchased all the processes for making steel, changed the business skills, focused on efficiency and used cheap labor. In short he brought classic capitalism approach and his policy was "Watch the costs; the profits will take care of themselves." He played an unfair game only for getting ahead of others and by doing all this; he succeeded in monopolizing the steel industry.

Despite above facts, it is also important to consider that Carnegie used his business for strengthening the economy. He knew how to use power and money for good. He was a very good business man with super rich business skills and his efforts really helped in controlling the American Steel Industry. At the time of retirement in 1901, he sold his company to a banker for 480 million and become the second richest man in the world.

Carnegie was not brought up like a rich kid who got everything he wanted; in fact he had a humble past. Therefore he had feeling to help the community and fulfill the needs of the people. Once he became a richest man, he also gave lot of money back to the community. For example, Carnegie Hall, which also exists today and is the famous conservatory of music in the world, is one of his developments. His work shows that Carnegie was not a selfish or one sided man. If he got dirty to make extra bucks, than he also gave a lot of money back to the society to make it a better place.

He acted as a role model for the big business and industry; he was the enthusiastic adopter of the new technologies and was the first person to adopt open hearth steel making process. Due to these contributions people consider him as the captain of the industry. However, because he was the innovator of his own rules and regulations for doing business, cost cutting production methods and organizational strategies, which made him famous and wealthiest man of the world, many people consider him as an infamous person in the era of labour struggle, indeed they recall him as a "robber baron."

On the contrary, those who look at his work from economical perspective, appreciate his approach and efforts of making up the biggest steel industry in the United States, which is probably biggest in the world too. They look at his positive side and claim that he was more like a "Robin Hood" instead of "Robber Baron" because he is also counted in one of the greatest philanthropists of the world, who gave away a large portion of his profits in charity.