The Master Moneyman: A Fortune in Paper Summary and Analysis

From 1867 through 1872 Andrew Carnegie joins the expansion trend by manipulating Western Union and Union Pacific stock to promote $30 million in stocks and bonds in Europe. He leaves his Pittsburgh home and iron business to live in New York City. Carnegie acquaints himself with contemporary thinkers like Henry Ward Beecher, Herbert Spencer and others. By reassessing his position, Carnegie determines a way to profit from the boom in telegraphy through railroad franchising. Telegraph and rail lines can share the same routes in a mutually beneficial way, exchanging services with each other to maximize profit. Carnegie and his triumvirate get a franchise from Pennsylvania Railroad with the benefits of existing poles and franchising from Trenton through to the Ohio state line. James L. Shaw of the Pacific and Atlantic Telegraph Company...