J. P. Morgan

Who was J. P. Morgan?

John Pierpont "J. P." Morgan was an American financier, banker, philanthropist and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric. After financing the creation of the Federal Steel Company, he merged in 1901 with the Carnegie Steel Company and several other steel and iron businesses, including Consolidated Steel and Wire Company owned by William Edenborn, to form the United States Steel Corporation.

Morgan died in Rome, Italy, in his sleep in 1913 at the age of 75, leaving his fortune and business to his son, John Pierpont "Jack" Morgan, Jr., and bequeathing his mansion and large book collections to The Morgan Library & Museum in New York.

At the height of Morgan's career during the early 1900s, he and his partners had financial investments in many large corporations and were accused by critics of controlling the nation's high finance. He directed the banking coalition that stopped the Panic of 1907. He was the leading financier of the Progressive Era, and his dedication to efficiency and modernization helped transform American business.

Famous Quotes:

• No problem can be solved until it is reduced to some simple form. The changing of a vague difficulty into a specific, concrete form is a very essential element in thinking.
• The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.
• When you expect things to happen -- strangely enough -- they do happen.
• If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it.
• Well, I don't know as I want a lawyer to tell me what I cannot do. I hire him to tell how to do what I want to do.
• You can't pick cherries with your back to the tree.
• The wise man bridges the gap by laying out the path by means of which he can get from where he is to where he wants to go.
• A man always has two reasons for doing anything -- a good reason and the real reason.
• A man always has two reasons for what he doesa good one, and the real one.
• Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you'll be able to see farther.