J.P. Morgan (b. 1937, d. 1913)

The term buy low, sell high was coined by John Pierpont Morgan Sr., who allegedly preferred to go by his middle name, Pierpont, is better known today, as J.P. Morgan.

J.P. Morgan was born on April 17, 1837 in

Hartford, Connecticut⁠

. As an J.P. Morgan was physically large with massive shoulders, piercing eyes, and a purple

pedunculated⁠

nose covered with pits, nodules, fissures, lobulations. Morgan suffered from rosacea and his nose deformity was caused by a disease called

rhinophyma⁠

. Morgan smoked cigars, including Havanas prodigiously; he was vain, hating publicity and requiring photographs of himself being retouched to obscure his nose condition. Morgan was said to have a physical effect on those in his presence, with one man describing an interaction with Morgan "as if a gale had blown through the house.”

J.P. Morgan was the son of father

Junius Spencer Morgan⁠

(1813–1890), a dry goods wholesaler, himself born of the influential Morgan family, and Juliet Pierpont (1816–1884), daughter of the poet

John Pierpont⁠

. J.P. Morgan’s uncle was

James Lord Pierpont⁠

, who composed the famous Christmas song

Jingle Bells⁠

J.P. Morgan was one of the single most influential human beings on twentieth century global finance and industry. Morgan had an extensive education in Europe and upon completion in 1857, worked in a series of banks, largely merchant banks, including servicing his own father’s accounts.

J.P. Morgan leveraged his family wealth and connections to take advantage of large market swings

Near the start of the American Civil War, J.P. Morgan opened his one-room brokerage at 53 Exchange Place, New York, New York, initially primarily serving his father’s accounts. Morgan was was able to work his own business by paying a substitute $300 to serve in his place in the war.

After the

Battle of Antietam⁠

turned the war in the Union's favor. J.P. Morgan made large profits in the purchase and sale of Union bonds and generated their first massive customer through a large deposit from

W. W. Corcoran⁠

after Corcoran sold his U.S. holdings out of sympathy for the Confederate cause. In October 1863, J.P. Morgan and Edward B. Ketchum transferred $1.15 million, equivalent to $22.4 million in 2023, in gold to England. The transfer allegedly caused a a price spike in gold that Morgan and Ketchum took advantage of to sell gold while the price was high. Critics and historians have considered the transaction a speculative effort to corner & manipulate the American gold market.

Driven by the the

Panic of 1893⁠

, caused by a crash in wheat prices and an oversupply of silver that led to deep declines in stock market prices, loss of jobs and economic depression, by 1895, demands for specie in exchange for treasury notes, the

U.S. Treasury⁠

nearly depleted its gold reserves. Never one to let a good panic go to waste, J.P. Morgan and the famed the

Rothschild⁠

family to sold 3.5 million ounces of gold directly to the U.S. Treasury in exchange for a 30-year bond issue.

From 1890 to 1913, 42 major corporations were organized or their securities were

underwritten⁠

, in whole or part, by J.P. Morgan and Company. Those included many corporations that were still in existence as of the date of this writing, mid-2025: Aetna Insurance, AT&T telecom, American Bridge, DuPont, General Electric, General Motors, US Steel (acquired by Nippon in early 2025), Western Union.

Despite his enormous wealth and great power, as all men, except those currently living, J.P. Morgan died. He passed away on March 31, 1913, in his sleep at the Grand Hotel Plaza in Rome, Italy.

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