Money

When US Steel floated in 1901 it brought 265 steel plants and 168,000 workers under a single corporate structure. Organised by J Pierpont Morgan, funding this corporate colossus involved a combination of $200 million in public share subscriptions, equity swaps, and the issue of mortgage bonds. Morgan’s reputation as an industry consolidator began with the merging of electric utility companies into what became General Electric in 1892. During the same decade Morgan was a robust acquirer of rail companies that were dubbed “Morgan’s Roads.”