Historical Figure
J. P. Morgan
d. 1913
American financier, banker, and art collector (1837–1913)
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Biography
John Pierpont Morgan Sr. was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known as JPMorgan Chase & Co., he was a driving force behind the wave of industrial consolidations in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century.
In Their Own Words (5)
It will fluctuate.
Said of the stock market, as quoted in Jean Strouse, Morgan: American Financier (Random House, 1999), p. 11 , 1999
If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it.
About purchasing a yacht; quoted in "Business Education World" (Gregg Publishing Company, 1961) , 1961
I owe the public nothing.
Quoted in the New York World (11 May 1901) during the Northern Pacific Corner. See Morgan: American Financier by Jean Strouse , 1901
[Credit] is an evidence of banking, but it is not the money itself. Money is gold, and nothing else.
1912
The first thing [in credit] is character … before money or anything else. Money cannot buy it.… A man I do not trust could not get money from me on all the bonds in Christendom. I think that is the fundamental basis of business.
1912
Timeline
The story of J. P. Morgan, told in moments.
Founded the banking house that would bear his name. By his forties he controlled railroads, shipping lines, and steel companies. He reorganized bankrupt railroads the way a surgeon removes damaged tissue.
Created U.S. Steel by buying out Andrew Carnegie for $480 million. The first billion-dollar corporation in history. When Carnegie said "I made you a rich man," Morgan replied, "I owe you one, Mr. Carnegie."
Personally stopped the Panic of 1907 by locking bankers in his library and refusing to let them leave until they pledged their own money to stabilize the markets. The crisis proved that one man shouldn't have that much power. Congress created the Federal Reserve.
Died in Rome at 75. His art collection filled most of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His estate was worth roughly $80 million. Rockefeller, hearing the figure, reportedly said: "And to think he wasn't even a rich man."
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