Rise of the Robber Barons

Grasping monopolists or American heroes? Adam IP Smith tells the story of a new breed of ruthless businessmen who made fortunes from oil, steel and railroads in the second half of the 19th century.

- Adam IP Smith

Railway bosses were not supposed to order their own freight cars to be burned. But in 1859, the superintendent of the western division of the Pennsylvania Railroad – a diminutive, barrel-chested 24-year-old Scotsman called Andrew Carnegie – did exactly that. From a business point of view, Carnegie’s logic was impeccable, if unconventional: a derailed train was blocking the line, and it would be quicker and cheaper to destroy it than to haul it to the nearest depot. Keeping the network moving, Carnegie realised, was the highest priority.

The metaphor is irresistible: Andrew Carnegie, on his way to becoming one of the richest men the world has ever known, ruthlessly destroying anything that stood in his way.

In February of the same year, The New York Times used a sinister simile to attack Cornelius Vanderbilt – a man born in the 18th century, when travel times were limited to the speed of the fastest horse, but who went on to dominate the early development of both steam ships and railroads.

To Carnegie’s ambitious generation, the venerable Vanderbilt – or ‘the Commodore’, as he was known – was the man who showed what could be done if you disregarded old rules and made your own. In the 1850s, Vanderbilt was engaged in fierce competition to control the lucrative sea route to California via Central America. At one stage, his rivals paid him a subsidy in exchange for him suspending his line.