The Economic Juggernaut:
trust - (n.) a relationship or system created at the direction of an individual, in which one or more persons hold the individual's property subject certain duties to use an protect it for the benefit of others
monopoly - (n.) the exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service
robber baron - (n.) an 19th-century American capitalist who acquired a fortune via ruthless means
monopolization - (n.) the possession of monopoly power in a properly-defined market, maintained through conduct deemed unlawful
"Morganization" - (n.) the above actions as done by J.P. Morgan
J.P. Morgan dominated corporate finance in the mid to late 1900s.
Morgan revolutionized the process of creating a monopoly by eliminating competition through buying up smaller companies, decreasing prices until the competitors cannot compete and go bankrupt, buy up the bankrupt competitors to cover more ground in a market, slashing the workforce behind the company, and reducing wages - this maximized the monopoly's profit.
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Morgan's dedication to efficiency and modernization revolutionized American business.
Of the many companies J.P. Morgan underwrote and had formed from monopolization of smaller companies, here are a few: the American Bridge Company (1900), the Federal Steel Company (1901), the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (1899), and finally the General Electric Corporation (1889)
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Morgan exercised control over 3 major industries: railroads, electricity and steel.
Of the many major companies that Morgan created from Monopolization, the biggest were the Northern Securities Company, a trust formed out of several of the major rail companies of the time (Northern Pacific, Great Northern, etc.), and U.S. Steel, formed from Carnegie's Steel Co. and three others (became world's first billion-dollar corporation).
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J.P. Morgan & Co. (and partners) would go on to have an estimated net worth of over $22 billion.
During the damaging Pujo Committee investigations in 1912, Morgan was determined to have a stranglehold on the nation's economy due to his monopolization practices. One of his most profitable trusts, the Northern Securities Company, was sued and dissolved into the numerous companies that made it up in the first place; it's the stress of this corporate dissolution that is said to have killed Morgan in 1913.
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"A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason."
~ J.P. Morgan