John Pierpont Morgan was born into a prosperous mercantile-banking family in 1837 and was raised in Hartford, Boston, and London. After a formal education that began in New England schools and continued in Switzerland and Germany, Morgan was placed by his father in an affiliated firm, where he rose from junior clerk to a position brokering sugar in Cuba and Louisiana. In 1860 he returned to New York and opened his own office, handling much the same kind of business his father did, namely, managing American investments for English clients and trading in foreign exchange. During the Civil War years Morgan speculated in various kinds of financial investments, as well as foreign exchange and gold, and counseled English investors about conditions in the American market. Morgan also brokered some important railroad offerings and played a prominent role in the refinancing of the federal government's Civil War...