Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie

Biography

 Andrew Carnegie, who became the richest man in the world, was born in August 1835 in Dunfermline - the medieval capital of Scotland, known for its fabrics and the royal castle. By the middle of XIX century castle decayed, and hand weaving, unable to compete with steam machines, went into decline. Will Carnegie, Andrew's father, lost his job. Have been out of weavers engaged in politics and organized movement of the Chartists, later subsumed into the history books as the first organized political movement of the proletariat.

 However, no significant results have not achieved the Chartists. Parliament refused to introduce universal suffrage. In addition, the live Carnegie family, consisting of Will, his wife Margaret and sons Tom and Andrew, was not for that, and in 1848 it was decided to go to America, which had previously moved aunt Andrew. "The working man lives is much better here than in Old England" - she told relatives. How successfully proved her nephew later, better still lived there to those who exploited the working man.

 Will Carnegie began to sell the property. Rescued some money and took some friends missing amount, he bought a cabin up to New York on a small ship Wiscasset. The journey took 50 days, and after three weeks of a family of immigrants landed in the last paragraph of his appointment - Pittsburgh.

Business story

 Pittsburgh at that time was the center of the industrial revolution. Circle built businesses all trying to make something in the air floating soot from which his eyes were watering, and you can wash every half hour. But 12-year-old Andrew Carnegie felt in his element. He did not go to the fifth grade, and from 4 years of education took a cotton factory. So he started his career. His career, which began, we can say from the bottom, steadily went uphill from 12 years of age.

 At first Andrew Carnegie received one dollar a week. Then, as a messenger to the telegraph office - two and a half. At the age of 18 he went to work for the company «Pennsylvania railroad». And at the age of 20 was already a qualified operator in the telegraph office and personal assistant to the head of the Western Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad Thomas Scott. Due to the tender friendship with the young widower Scott Carnegie made a small, but very important step for the future wealth - put on his initiative its 217 dollars in company stock, which produced sleeping cars. After a couple of years, these papers have already brought 5,000 dollars a year, and the Carnegie strengthen the idea that wage labor does not earn real money. His salary was ten times less than the "unearned income" even after he took the place of the departed to raise Scott. Now Andrew himself - the chief of the West Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad (in 25 years).

 Carnegie continued to invest (invest) in a variety of business and at the age of 28 years, his income has amounted to more than 40 thousand dollars a year. However, he continued to work on the railroad up to the Civil War - thought it was my duty. Subsequently, the only holiday of the year, when the workers at the Carnegie steel mills could not work, it was July 4 - U.S. Independence Day. The first steel company has appeared at Carnegie, when he was only 26 years old. In 30 years, stepping down from the position of the railway telegraph, he opened several more firms, one of which was built to replace the wooden bridge steel. Of course, the material for steel bridges Carnegie bought from himself. Two years later the list of companies added to the telegraph company.

Conclusion

 Business sense at Carnegie was just rare. Shortly before the stock market crash of 1873, he sold all his shares and invested the money in steel production. The largest steel plant Carnegie opened in 1875, adulatory naming it after the chief Pennsylvania Railroad - Steelworks "named Edgar Thomson." Besides this, of course, flattered, so for future orders could not worry. And not to pay for the coke, so necessary in the steel industry, Carnegie bought a controlling stake in its largest producer. A former business owner - Henry Frick, he summoned the manager.

 By 1881, Andrew Carnegie was earning a million dollars a year. By 1889 the same year the income from operations of Andrew Carnegie in steel production amounted to 20 million dollars a year, while the average annual income of the American worker was only $ 500. He meticulously collected all stages of production and save on everything, following the advice of her mother: Andy, take the pennies and shillings somehow take care of themselves.

 As a result, the cost of production has decreased ten times, and the company Carnegie Steel Corporation, to which the Carnegie in ten years - in 1899, brought together all its steel business, in terms of production went around the entire British steel industry.