Before the Fed: J.P. Morgan, America's Lender of Last Resort

by Jon Moen, Mary Tone Rodgers

Overview

In the 19th century the United States had no formal central bank or lender of last resort, but it did have J. P. Morgan. His unique knowledge of financial markets gave him almost omniscient knowledge for crafting solutions to financial crises. Before the Fed examines Morgan's unusual role in resolving the National Banking Era crises in the U. S., exploring the rocky relationships and ultimatums he used to settle financial panics. It traces how he learned crisis management from his father, passing them along to his son in turn. Citing his own ledgers, telegrams and testimony, Jon Moen and Mary Tone Rodgers details how Morgan applied and modified routine business practices to solve non-routine crises, managing risk and reward in emergency lending. Analyzing forty last resort loans made over his fifty-year career, the authors challenge the invincibility folklore surrounding Morgan, uncovering how he stabilized American markets when others could not.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781009291569
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/30/2025
Series:	Studies in Macroeconomic History
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Jon Moen is a Professor of Economics at the University of Mississippi. He has published papers on US slavery, retirement, and bank panics during the National Banking Era. He is a member of the Economic History Association, the Economic History Society, and the Cliometrics Society.

Mary Tone Rodgers is an Adjunct Instructor of Finance and Economics at the State University of New York. She enjoyed a 30-year career at Merrill Lynch before moving to academia where she received the 2022 Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Morgan and bank reserves: a user's guide; 3. Morgan's routine business syndicates; 4. Early panics: 1837 and 1857; 5. Panics in the early national banking era 1873–1893; 6. Silverite threats in 1894; 7. 1895 and 1896 transactions to replenish the US Treasury; 8. Lesser crises: 1899–1902; 9. Panic of 1907: the domestic front; 10. Panic of 1907: the international front; 11. 1908: the long clean up; 12. Summary, legacy and relevance; Technical Appendix 1.1 Supply and demand for short-term liquidity; Technical Appendix 2.1 Bank pooling methods; Technical Appendix 2.2 Loan certificates; Technical Appendix 3.1 Morgan's routine business syndicates; Technical Appendix 6.1 The International Gold Standard; Technical Appendix 8.1 Morgan's routine syndicates after 1895; Technical Appendix 12.1 Aldrich Vreeland Act Analysis.