Editing Andrew Carnegie (section)

====Market concentration====
Spencer wrote that in production the advantages of the superior individual are comparatively minor, and thus acceptable, yet the benefit that dominance provides those who control a large segment of production might be hazardous to competition. Spencer feared that an absence of "sympathetic self-restraint" of those with too much power could lead to the ruin of their competitors.<ref name="autogenerated1">Spencer, Herbert 1887 (''The Ethics of Social Life: Negative Beneficence''). ''The Collected Works of 6 Books'' (With Active Table of Contents) (Kindle Locations 26500–26524). Kindle Edition.</ref> He did not think free-market competition necessitated competitive warfare. Furthermore, Spencer argued that individuals with superior resources who deliberately used investment schemes to put competitors out of business were committing acts of "commercial murder".<ref name="autogenerated1"/> Carnegie built his wealth in the steel industry by maintaining an extensively integrated operating system. Carnegie also bought out some regional competitors, and merged with others, usually maintaining the majority shares in the companies. Over the course of twenty years, Carnegie's steel properties grew to include the Edgar Thomson Steel Works, the Lucy Furnace Works, the Union Iron Mills, the Homestead Works, the Keystone Bridge Works, the Hartman Steel Works, the Frick Coke Company, and the Scotia ore mines among many other industry-related assets.<ref>Morris, Charles R. (2005). ''The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J.P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy''. Times Books. {{ISBN|0-8050-7599-2}}. p. 132</ref>

Herbert Spencer absolutely was against government interference in business in the form of regulatory limitations, taxes, and tariffs as well. Spencer saw tariffs as a form of taxation that levied against the majority in service to "the benefit of a small minority of manufacturers and artisans".<ref>Spencer, Herbert. ''Principles of Ethics'', 1897 (Chapter 22: "Political Rights-So-called"). (With Active Table of Contents) (Kindle Locations 24948–24956). Kindle Edition.</ref>

Despite Carnegie's personal dedication to Herbert Spencer as a friend, his adherence to Spencer's political and economic ideas is more contentious. In particular, it appears Carnegie either misunderstood or intentionally misrepresented some of Spencer's principal arguments. Spencer remarked upon his first visit to Carnegie's steel mills in Pittsburgh, which Carnegie saw as the manifestation of Spencer's philosophy, "Six months' residence here would justify suicide."<ref>Joseph Frazer Wall, ''Andrew Carnegie'' (1989) p. 386.</ref>

{{Blockquote|The conditions of human society create for this an imperious demand; the concentration of capital is a necessity for meeting the demands of our day, and as such should not be looked at askance, but be encouraged. There is nothing detrimental to human society in it, but much that is, or is bound soon to become, beneficial. It is an evolution from the heterogeneous to the homogeneous, and is clearly another step in the upward path of development.|Carnegie, Andrew 1901 The Gospel of Wealth and Other Timely Essays<ref name="ReferenceB"/>}}

[[File:Stained-glass window of Andrew Carnegie at the former Carnegie Library, Victoria Street, St Albans, June 2023.jpg|thumb|right|Stained-glass window of Andrew Carnegie at the former Carnegie Library, St Albans, Hertfordshire]]