Business and Industry
J.P. Morgan
1837–1913

John Pierpont Morgan was taught about international banking from a young age and that personal integrity was a major key to success in banking. J.P. Morgan, as he became known, graduated from the University of Gottingen, Germany, and opened his own investment firm in 1862. Morgan joined the Drexel firm to form Drexel, Morgan and Co. in 1871, which opened on the corner of Wall and Broad streets in New York City. After his financier father’s death in 1890, he took over the company and renamed it J.P. Morgan and Company.

Morgan had faith in the American worker and financed many such industrial companies as General Electric and International Harvester that bloomed to become the heartbeat of America's economy. Morgan became the symbol of Wall Street and the financial community looked to him for leadership.

At the height of Morgan's power and influence, during the early 1900s, he controlled a hundred corporations with more than $22 billion in assets, one of which was the first billion-dollar corporation, U.S. Steel Company. In 1907, when there was a banking panic, Morgan took command, rallied the other bankers, and restored their confidence. That panic led to the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913, the same year Morgan died in Rome, Italy.

Sponsors of U-S-History.com:

Sponsor this site