Carnegie recognized that reducing the competition that plagued the iron makers was critical to the new steel industry. For all practical purposes the market for steel initially consisted of the railroads. As late as 1882, steel rails composed 90 percent of steel production. The new steel rails lasted much longer than iron rails, and their strength allowed the railroad companies to run bigger, faster, and longer trains. Once the tariff eliminated British steel, and the steel companies’ control of patents limited new entries into the field, the major companies formed pools to allot production.
