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Some of capitalism's most eminent captains--like J. P. Morgan--have been among those most troubled by its chaos. Free markets are hectic. It's hard for many people to see any underlying order, especially those in the midst of the action. Such a man was John Pierpont Morgan, born in 1837 to Junius Morgan, a banker, and Juliet Pierpont Morgan, a preacher's daughter.
Over his lifetime Morgan, who went by the name Pierpont, accumulated enormous power in the United States and around the world by combining great intelligence with an indomitable will and a passion for order. When he died in 1913, The Economist magazine said of Morgan that he was "a typical American banker--quick, resolute, highly speculative, well-versed...above all, in trusts, pools, syndicates and agreements...He was the Napoleon of Wall Street."
AN ERA OF CHANGE
Morgan's career began during the Civil War and continued through the first decade and a half of the 20th century. It was a...