Andrew Carnegie’s Innovative Approach to Steel Production

Andrew Carnegie's innovative approach to steel production helped him amass an unprecedented personal fortune from which he could pursue many philanthropic endeavors. In addition to bad working conditions, Carnegie has been criticized for paying his workers low wages, therefore making labor relations between Carnegie and the people who worked very hard.

Carnegie built plants around the country, using technology and methods that made making steel much more efficient. He had all the material in order to get started including raw materials, ships and railroads for transporting the goods, and even coal fields to fuel the steel furnaces. Having these resources helped him begin his monopoly, and the top in the industry. After 12 years of working in the Steel Industry Carnegie considered retirement, but little did he know that a banker named J.P Morgan secretly wanted to buy out his Steel factory.

J.P Morgan watched closely for years on how Carnegie thrived in his business and how quickly and efficiently he produced profit. He envisioned a more thorough steel industry that would lower the costs for materials, lower prices for buyers, be able to make produce in larger amounts and raise wages for the workers.

In order to do this he needed to buy out Carnegie and several other major producers and combine them into one major company, therefore getting rid of duplication. He finished negotiations on March 2 1901, and then made the United States Steel Corporation. It was the very first corporation in the world with a market capitalization over $1 billion.The buyout, secretly negotiated by Charles M Schwab, was the largest industrial takeover in United States history to this day. The holdings were incorporated in the United States Steel Corporation. Then Carnegie's Steel Corporations were bought out for $303,450,000. By 1889, Carnegie Steel Corporation was the largest Steel Company in the world. After Carnegie sold his steel company, he retired from business and devoted himself full-time to philanthropy.

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