— Ch. 1 · Foundations And Early History —
JPMorgan Chase.
~5 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
Aaron Burr opened the Bank of the Manhattan Company on the 1st of September 1799. The bank began as a water carrier before transforming into a financial institution within six months. Burr sneaked a clause into a charter for clean water to allow the company to invest surplus capital in any lawful enterprise. This political maneuver created one of the oldest banking entities still operating today. Hamilton's political enemy and eventual murderer used state legislature acts to bypass standard banking charters. The innocuous-looking clause allowed the company to open a bank long before laying a single section of water pipe. Today JPMorgan Chase stands as the largest bank in the United States tracing its roots back to this 1799 founding.
Mergers And Corporate Evolution
J.P. Morgan & Co. launched the House of Morgan on 23 Wall Street in 1871. Henry P. Davison made a deal with the Bank of England in August 1914 to make J.P. Morgan & Co. the monopoly underwriter of war bonds for the UK and France. A terrorist bomb exploded in front of the bank on the 16th of September 1920 killing 38 people and injuring over 400 more. The case has never been solved and was rendered inactive by the FBI in 1940. In 1935 heads of J.P. Morgan spun off its investment-banking operations led by Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley. They founded Morgan Stanley on the 16th of September 1935 with $6.6 million of nonvoting preferred stock from J.P. Morgan partners. Chemical Bank acquired Chase Manhattan in 1996 retaining the better-known Chase name despite being the nominal survivor. The modern entity formed through the merger of New York City banks J.P. Morgan & Co. and Chase Manhattan Company in 2000.