The Man Who Made Wall Street: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance

Abstract

While J. Pierpont Morgan has deservedly received a great deal of scholarly attention, Anthony J. Drexel (1826–1893), Morgan's partner and mentor, has undeservedly received very little. In this book, Dan Rottenberg “seeks to rescue an important historical figure from obscurity.” To a large measure he succeeds. Rottenberg's problem is that he has little documentary evidence to work with. Earlier historians have not disputed Drexel's importance; they have lacked material. Drexel was an intensely private man who left behind few personal papers, and Drexel & Company's nineteenth-century documents were destroyed in the 1950s. To make up for the lack of direct evidence on Drexel, Rottenberg draws parallels between Drexel and his contemporaries. The early chapters thus are less about the life and more about the times of Anthony J. Drexel. Nevertheless, the author knows enough of Drexel's life and career to provide an illuminating tale. Drexel was put to work in his father's Philadelphia note-brokerage house at age thirteen; he became a partner in Drexel & Company at age twenty-one; and within a short time he became managing partner in what evolved into a full-service private bank. For most men who came of age in the mid-nineteenth century, this would have constituted a life. Drexel, however, was just beginning. In the 1850s, Drexel formed an enduring relationship with Junius Spencer Morgan, who was then affiliated with the private bankers George Peabody & Company of London. Drexel and Peabody's affiliation ultimately changed two men's lives, Drexel's and that of Junius's son, J. P.