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JP Morgan: How A Connecticut Native’s Power and Influence Reshaped the American Economy

JP Morgan, a titan of finance in the late 19^th century, was a Connecticut native whose power, influence, and remarkable ability to lead allowed him to become one of the world’s most powerful bankers and industrialists of his time.

He was largely credited with reviving a nation during times of economic upheaval, organizing Wall Street, and ushering in a new era of the American economy, complete with a Federal Reserve. From restructuring to trusts to consolidations to mergers, Morgan was behind some of the largest corporate moves that established the U.S. economy as one of the most powerful in the world.

John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) was born and largely raised in Hartford, Connecticut, to a successful financier, Junius Spencer Morgan. He started out as an accountant at a New York banking firm and soon became involved in his father’s merchant banking firm in NYC. By 1871, he had made partner with the NYC firm of Drexel, Morgan and Company – a large source of federal government financing. It was reorganized as JP Morgan and Company in 1895, and today, it remains one of the most powerful financial institutions in the world.

Morgan the financier made weighty, monumental moves that garnered him praise and stabilized industries that were on the verge of ruin. But it was Morgan the leader who effortlessly commanded every board room that he entered. His ability to motivate and inspire others is, perhaps, one of his most enduring legacies.

He restructured and reorganized the nation’s leading rail lines in an effort to financially stabilize their operations and achieve stability in the rail industry. As a result, he became a member of the board of directors of many railroads and gained significant portions of their stock, which further increased his influence and power in the industry.

During the Panic of 1893, Morgan was able to form a syndicate that resupplied the government’s gold reserve, thereby thwarting a Treasury crisis. And within a few years, Morgan was using his power to take over a number of major manufacturing consolidations, essentially reshaping the American manufacturing sector. He was behind a massive merger between Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric, which became the nation’s largest manufacturing firm of the time. He also merged the Federal Steel Company (which he helped create in 1898) and the Carnegie Steel Company to form the United States Steel Corporation – the world’s first billion-dollar corporation.

He again came to the nation’s rescue after the stock market panic of 1907. He brought together some of the country’s top financiers and convinced them to take on large government deposits that were used to rescue major banks and corporations, prevent their collapse, and stabilize the markets.