J. P. Morgan
Born April 17, 1837 (Hartford, Connecticut)
Died March 31, 1913 (Rome, Italy)
Financier
By 1900 John Pierpont (J. P.) Morgan had amassed one of the largest fortunes in the United States, and over the next decade his financial empire grew to rival the economies of large nations. His finance company was so well funded it was able to back new industries, buy railroads, and arrange mergers between giant corporations. The majority of the American public believed that Morgan's money and skill were advancing the rapid growth of American industry, but many nonetheless viewed the powerful Wall Street banker as a robber baron, a term sometimes used to refer to the ruthless and greedy industrialists of the latter half of the nineteenth century. In several ways Morgan had more influence over the American economy than the federal government, and some Americans were alarmed that one private citizen had obtained such power in a democratic nation. Morgan, however, believed he was working for the advancement of the United States. Throughout his career he organized industries in an attempt to eliminate competition among them and to stabilize the nation's economy. Morgan also directly helped the government avoid financial crises on three occasions.
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