Wall Street
Wall Street home of money where people go to get rich. Wall Street has a long reputation of being the financial pinnacle of America. Wall Street is located in the southern tip of Manhattan in New York city and it's home to the New York stock exchange which is the largest Stock exchange in the world, as well as many of the largest banking and financial institutions of the world.
Today, Wall Street is used as a generalized term to describe the various large financial institutions of America. As a result of better technology and more efficient communication methods not all financial firms need to be located right next to the stock exchange to do business like they had to be in the past. Thus many of the financial institutions that were once located on wall street in order to be near the stock exchange have migrated to other parts of New York city. As well as expanded across the globe but there is no doubt that wall street as well as New York city in general is still the Financial hub of America as well as the rest of the world.
But just how did Wall Street become such an integral part of finance in America and earned the reputation of the Financial capital of the world
The origins of wall street date back to 1653 when New York was called the new Amsterdam and was a dutch colony. Dutch colonists built a wall in what is now Wall Street to defend the city from British Invaders and after some time the wall was eventually torn down and changed the city name to New York.
New York was now a British colony wall street became a trading hub throughout the 1700s due to its prime location. However, wall street also has a dark side to its history as it became one of the first slave markets for the sale and rental of Enslaved Africans and Indians the city taxed the slaves that were bought and sold on wall street.Thus turning the trade into a lucrative endeavor for the city.
The origins of wall street may have been dark but later turned into an iconic representation of American history, President George Washington was sworn there as first president of the United States in federal hall on wall street in 1789. This was also the location of the passage of the bill of rights, furthermore the first secretary of treasury Alexander Hamilton is buried in the cemetery in trinity church located on wall street.
Buttonwood Agreement
Wall Street was not considered America's leading Financial center until 1792, when the city largest brokers at the time signed the Buttonwood Agreement. This agreement laid the groundwork for securities trading. The Brokers who formed this agreement eventually renamed this as the NYSE board, they rented a retail space as a central location to trade securities this was the origins of the New York stock exchange which played a pivotal role in the development of wall street as a financial hub.
In 1825 the opening of the Erie canal led to a huge boom of business and trade for new york and wall street. Furthermore, when the civil war started in 1861 it became profitable for the northern economy. Wall street bankers lent money to the U.S government to help finance the war.
After this Wall street became the banking center of the united states. This time period was in the midst of the industrial revolution as America was becoming more industrialized and large factories and corporations began to form many wall street bankers helped finance.
Many business giants such as jp morgan invested in everything from steel to electric companies and forming some of the largest companies.As well between 1860 and the early 1900s the american economy transformed itself into an industrialized economy. New York city became the second largest financial city in the world after London.
The early 20th century was considered to be the pinnacle of wall street as businesses across america were booming between 1899 and 1904. 4200 publicly traded companies merged into just 250 companies as a result of corporate mergers, mega corporations such as JP morgan, U.Steel.
The first billion dollar company come to dominate wall street and the the power of wall street began to consolidate and its interests started to clash with the interests of politicians and ordinary people.
As a result the progressive party eventually led by Theodore Roosevelt rose to prominence to challenge the interests of wall street, furthermore much of the working class was discontent with their working conditions and the increase to wealth disparity that was occurring as a result labor unions formed.
Wall street continued to grow and consolidate in power. 1920s was considered a great era for the US economy overall and everyone seemed to want to live lavishly during this time period. New inventions such as the automobile and the radio were becoming increasingly common for people to buy and the stock market soared throughout the 20s and people wanted to get in on the action.
However, Wall Street has deep pockets and they've shown they will go to any length to get what they want. Whether it be lobbying politicians or simply committing illegal business practices.
