Name: Nurayda Albeez

J.P. Morgan accumulated an enormous fortune in his lifetime. However, he created his wealth

by being a robber baron. As the journal article The National Interest states, J.P. Morgan used

America’s laborers for money by hiring workers to run his businesses without paying them what

they deserve (Ajami 6). To add on, he implemented unfair fees upon his customers. In the journal

article The Urban Lawyer, a case between Sylvia Cohen and J.P. Morgan’s company is

discussed. Cohen filed a case against the company for collecting $225 fees when refinancing

home mortgages. She said that this violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and New

York's General Business Law. Other customers of Morgan's company supported Cohen as they

had experienced the same fee. In the end, the case did not succeed, most likely due to J.P.

Morgan’s influence in politics (Stark 187).

These are not the only ways in which J.P. Morgan cheated the financial system. According to

the journal article The Business History Review, “Morgan’s higher profits in New York derived

partly from insider deals,” (Hannah 2). Since insider deals are illegal deals that involve company

employees buying/selling equity and bonds under the radar, this quote shows that J.P. Morgan

participated in black deals. Furthermore, as seen in the journal article Montana: The Magazine of

Western History, J.P. Morgan caused violence against Indians to acquire land in order to expand

his railroad business. Specifically, his company fought with Indians in the location where he

wanted to build the Canadian Pacific Railroad.

But, why was it so easy for J.P. Morgan to manipulate people for his own benefit? The journal

article Anthropological Quarterly answers this question when it states, “Because of Morgan’s

high birth status he was able to merge economic with symbolic capital, misdirecting people to

believe that actions promoting his economic gain were also to the advantage of the public,”

(Hamer 8). All of these reasons prove that the J.P. Morgan was a robber baron who is “wanted”.
 Works Cited

Ajami, Fouad. "Their Gilded Age—and Ours." The National Interest, no. 63, 2001, pp. 37-47.

JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42897319. Accessed 22 Sept. 2022.

Hamer, John H. "Money and the Moral Order in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century

American Capitalism." Anthropological Quarterly, vol. 71, no. 3, 1998, pp. 138-49.

JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3318083. Accessed 22 Sept. 2022.

Hannah, Leslie. "J. P. Morgan in London and New York before 1914." The Business History

Review, vol. 85, no. 1, 2011, pp. 113-50. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41301372.

Accessed 22 Sept. 2022.

Montana: The Magazine of Western History. Vol. 56, no. 3, 2006. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/4520825. Accessed 22 Sept. 2022.

Stark, Nicholas. "Cohen V. JP Morgan Chase & Co." The Urban Lawyer, vol. 40, no. 1, 2008, pp.

186-88. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23800830. Accessed 22 Sept. 2022.