Robber Barons. Or Captains of Industry? I don’t know….

Reading Homework! Do it. Read. Read Chapter 6, section 3. (6.3)

Andrew Carnegie Born poor in Scotland, moved to Murica when he was 12. Worked for a Railroad company. One day he gets rewarded for a job well done with some stock in the company. Once he starts receiving those dividend checks, he’s hooked on becoming a business man.

Business Carnegie got into the steel business after visiting England and seeing a steel factory use the Bessemer process. He sees that, with the oncoming Industrial Age, steel will be essential, so he pours all his energy into this business.

How he was so successful. Vertical Integration- He bought out his suppliers, like coal fields, iron mines, etc. All things that went into making steel he had almost complete control over. Horizontal Integration- Buying out your competitors and people who make similar products as you. This gives him complete dominance of the steel industry.

Social Darwinism This idea was beginning to make some traction in the US and the UK It applied Darwin’s theory of evolution to human society, like the strong will survive. This was applied to the success of Carnegie to explain his business practices.

Rockefeller He was in the oil business and his big company was Standard Oil. He was able to rise to the top by paying his workers very low wages, and selling his oil so cheap that his competitors couldn’t keep up. He would buy them out, and then when he controlled all of the oil market, he hiked up the price.

Robber Barons Critics of these new Industrial giants started referring to these men as “Robber Barons,” meaning they got super rich, but basically by playing dirty and cheating.