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A Private Bank at War: J.P. Morgan & Co. and France, 1914–1918

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2011

Martin Horn
Affiliation:
MARTIN HORN is an assistant professor of history at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between J.P. Morgan & Co. and France during the First World War. It argues that the dealings between the French government and the partners of J.P. Morgan & Co. from 1914 to 1918 were characterized by personal difficulties between successive French representatives and the partners of J.P. Morgan & Co. Contributing to a strained relationship was the place of Morgan, Harjes, the French affiliate of J.P. Morgan & Co., within the House of Morgan. Herman Harjes, the senior partner in Morgan, Harjes, though a proponent of Franco-American amity, became disenchanted with his New York partners as the war continued. The feeling was shared by those in New York, who reevaluated the role of Morgan, Harjes within the House of Morgan—until the French affiliate's eventual disappearance in 1926. While sympathetic to France, and instrumental in sustaining French credit during the war, the partners of J.P. Morgan & Co. conceived of the Allied cause as the British cause, a perspective that led them to rebuff calls for greater Franco-American financial cooperation.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2000

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References

1 Edward R. Stettinius was recruited as a partner to head the Export Department. Reflecting the divide within the bank between the purchasing and financing functions from 1914 to 1917, Stettinius was not involved in questions of international finance. See Forbes, John Douglas, Stettinius, Sr: Portrait of a Morgan Partner (Charlottesville, Va., 1974), 4464.Google Scholar Not all British and French purchases made in the United States were handled by J.P. Morgan & Co. However, the firm did handle the bulk of British and French buying in the United States. Purchasing issues could on occasion create disputes. A good example is the British purchase of rifles in 1916 which eventually had to be referred to the Cabinet for resolution. See Burk, Kathleen, Britain, America and the Sinews of War (Boston, 1985), 4142Google Scholar.

2 Difficulties associated with archival materials have probably played some part in producing this situation. Of the leading wartime figures in the bank, the Lamont collection at the Baker Library is well known to historians. Henry P. Davison left no private papers; the existence of the J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers in the Pierpont Morgan Library was denied for decades, and these were opened to scholars only in the 1980s; the Morgan Grenfell papers are deposited in the Guildhall Library but restrictions remain in place; and little survived in the way of Morgan, Harjes documents.

3 Chernow, Ron, The House of Morgan (New York, 1990). Pages 183204Google Scholar cover the wartime period.

4 Carosso, Vincent, The Morgans: Private International Bankers, 1854-1913 (Cambridge, Mass., 1987)Google Scholar. Carossos papers were bequeathed to the Pierpont Morgan Library and now form a part of the archival collection. A number of typescript chapters dealing with the First World War exist in what was apparently planned as a study reaching into the interwar period. I would like to thank Mr. David Wright, formerly the archivist at the Pierpont Morgan Library, for this information. There is a substantial literature on the twin themes of European reconstruction and American involvement therein and Anglo-American relations in the postwar world. Among the more important works are Schuker, Stephen, The End of French Pre-dominance in Europe (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1976)Google Scholar; Silverman, Dan P., Reconstructing Europe after the Great War (Cambridge, Mass., 1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hogan, Michael, Informal Entente: the Private Structure of Cooperation in Anglo-American Economic Diplomacy, 1918-1928 (Columbia, S.C., 1977)Google Scholar; and Costigliola, Frank, Awkward Dominion: American Political, Economic, and Cultural Relations with Europe, 1919-1933 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1984).Google Scholar

5 Burk, Kathleen, Britain, America and the Sinews of War and Morgan Grenfell, 1838-1988: The Biography of a Merchant Bank (Oxford, 1989).Google Scholar

6 Burk, Kathleen, “A Merchant Bank at War: The House of Morgan, 1914-1918,” in Money and Power, ed. Cottrell, P. L. and Moggridge, D.E. (London, 1988)Google Scholar. Roberta Dayer, in a similar vein, assessed J.P. Morgan's ties to the British government. Dayer, Roberta, “Strange Bedfellows: J.P. Morgan & Co., Whitehall and the Wilson Administration During World War I,” Business History 18 (July 1976): 127151CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Roberts, Priscilla, “Willard D. Straight and the Diplomacy of International Finance during the First World War,” Business History 40 (July 1998): 2732CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Roberts, Priscilla, “The Anglo-American Theme: American Visions of an Atlantic Alliance, 1914-1933,” Diplomatic History 21 (Summer 1997): 333364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Dan P. Silverman is an exception. On his work see the discussion below. Renouvin, Pierre, “La Politique des emprunts étrangers aux États-Unis de 1914 à 1917.” Annales 6 (1951): 289305CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kaspi, André, Le Temps des Américains 1917-1918 (Paris, 1976)Google Scholar; Nouailhat, Yves-Henri, France et États-Unis, aôut 1914-avril 1917 (Paris, 1979)Google Scholar; Soutou, Georges-Henri, L'Or et le sang (Paris, 1989).Google Scholar

10 Silverman, Reconstructing Europe after the Great War, 19, 38-39.

11 Ibid., 227.

12 On the pre-war history of the House of Morgan, Carosso, The Morgans, is authoritative. See as well Strouse, Jean, Morgan: American Financier (New York, 1999)Google Scholar. Unfortunately, no substantive body of Morgan, Harjes archival material has survived. It seems likely that the records of the firm were dispersed with the German occupation during the Second World War and never reconstituted. The few papers held at the Morgan Guaranty offices in Paris, formerly the Morgan, Harjes offices, are unhelpful. The correspondence of Herman Harjes, business and otherwise, is sparse, with occasional pieces surfacing in the J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, the Morgan Grenfell papers in the Guildhall Library, London and the Thomas W. Lamont papers in the Baker Library at Harvard University. A typescript history of Morgan, Harjes written in 1933 by H. O. Loderhose, A History of Morgan, Harjes et Cie, 1872-1932, can be found in the J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Box 116.

13 No scholarly study of Harjes exists. The paucity of material regarding his life and career is striking. Harjes’ obituary in The Neiv York Times, 22 Aug. 1926, page 1 provides an outline.

14 A good overview of the connection between French finance and foreign relations can be found in Poidevin, Raymond, Finances et relations Internationales 1887-1914 (Paris, 1970)Google Scholar.

15 This paragraph is drawn from Hansen, Arlen J., Gentlemen Volunteers: The Story of the American Ambulance Drivers in the Great War (New York, 1996), 320Google Scholar. I would like to thank Mr. H. Herman Harjes III for this reference.

16 Quotation provided courtesy of Dr. Alan Albright. The original remains in possession of the family.

17 Carosso, The Morgans, 12.

18 J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 92, folder 464.

19 J.S. Morgan & Co. was the precursor to Morgan Grenfell. The latter firm was formed in 1910.

20 Jack Morgan to Vivian Smith, 16 Jan. 1906, J.P. Morgan, Jr., Papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 4/1. Aldenham was Jack Morgan's three hundred acre country estate in Hertfordshire.

21 There is a biography of Jack Morgan: Forbes, John D., J.P. Morgan, Jr., 1867-1943 (Charlottesville, Va., 1981).Google Scholar

22 His admirers were almost exclusively in London in the 1914-1917 years. It was widely believed in Paris and London that Davison's personal failings had goaded the Federal Reserve Board to issue a warning to American investors regarding the credit worthiness of Allied plans to sell short term bonds in Nov. 1916. This action, which was undertaken at the behest of President Woodrow Wilson for reasons connected to his plan to mediate in the war, provoked a crisis in Allied finance. Accounts of the affair are found in Burk, Britain, America, and the Sinews of War, 83-90; Nouailhat, France et États-Unis, 374-378; Soutou, L'Or et le sang, 375-378.

23 On Davison's life and career, see the account penned by Lamont, Thomas W., Henry Pomeroy Davison, The Record of a Useful Life (New York, 1933)Google Scholar.

24 For Lamonts career, Lamont, Edward W., The Ambassador from Wall Street (Madison, 1994)Google Scholar; and Hogan, Michael J., “Thomas W. Lamont and European Recovery: The Diplomacy of Privatism in a Corporatist Age,” in U.S. Diplomats in Europe, 1919-1941, ed. Jones, Kenneth Paul (reprint ed., Santa Barbara: 1983), 522Google Scholar are useful. The Lamont papers in the Baker Library of Harvard University are extensive, though less so on the wartime period. Moreover, there is considerable duplication of the J.P. Morgan, Jr., collection.

25 Quoted in Chernow, The House of Morgan. 430.

26 Lamont, The Ambassador from Wall Street, 28.

27 Lamont, Thomas W., Across World Frontiers (New York, 1951), 14.Google Scholar

28 Landes, David, Bankers & Pashas, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, Mass., 1979), 33.Google Scholar

29 Quoted in Carosso, The Morgans, 2.

30 Quoted in Lamont, Hennj Pomeroy Davison, 136.

31 Burk, Morgan Grenfell, 29.

32 Landes, Bankers & Pashas, 33.

33 Speech by Jack Morgan in honor of George F. Baker at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, 12 Jan. 1925, J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 101/folder 280, #2. Remarkably, this was apparently Jack Morgan's first public address.

34 Jack Morgan, 28 Apr. 1916, J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 71/folder 153/4.

35 The phrases “Morgan partners” or “New York partners” refer to Jack Morgan, Henry Davison, Thomas Lamont, and Dwight Morrow. While there were other Morgan partners in New York, it was these men who conducted all of the financial business with France. Morrow, as the most junior of the four, was involved much less frequently than his senior colleagues.

36 On Jusserand see André de Laboulaye, “J. J. Jusserand, Ambassadeur de France,” Revue des Deux Monties, 1 July 1949; and Kaspi, Le Temps des Américains, 10-11.

37 Ribot was appointed minister of finance in the cabinet shuffle which produced the Union Sacree on 26 Aug. 1914. His tenure in this office lasted until 18 March 1917, when he formed a new government as premier of France in the wake of the resignation of Aristide Briand. Ribot then assumed the portfolio of foreign affairs in addition to the presidency of the council of ministers. His successor as finance minister was Joseph Thierry who was in turn re-placed in Sept. 1917 by Lucien Klotz. Ribot is thus the central political figure for French wartime finance. For his career, see Schmidt, Martin E., Alexandre Ribot: Odyssey of a Liberal in the Third Republic (The Hague, 1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 The best overview of French external finance during the war remains Petit, Histoire des finances extérieures de la France pendant hi guerre 1914-1918 (Paris, 1929)Google Scholar. See too, Goute, Albert, Des Principals opérations du trésor français depuis le debut de la guerre de 1914 jusqu'a l'intervention des États-Unis (Paris, 1923)Google Scholar and Jèze, Gaston and Truchy, Henri, The War Finance of France (New Haven, 1927)Google Scholar.

39 Milward, Alan, “Les Placements français à l'étranger et les Deux Guerres Mondiales,” in La Position Internationale de la France, ed. Levy-Leboyer, Maurice (Paris, 1977), 301Google Scholar. Morgan, Harjes, provided the Morgans estimate in response to a query from the Wilson administration. J.P. Morgan & Co. to William G. McAdoo (secretary of the treasury in the Wilson administration, 1913-1918), 24 Sept. 1914, Library of Congress, William G. McAdoo Mss. box 123.

40 Charles Feinstein, “Britain's Overseas Investments in 1913,” Economic History Review, 2nd series (May 1990): 288-295.

41 In a note drafted for Lord Cunliffe, who was shortly to head to the United States to assist in coordinating American dollar credits, John Maynard Keynes, then the head of the Treasury department dealing with international finance, pointed out that direct credits to France in 1915-1916 amounted to £20,000,000, a figure that climbed in 1916-1917 to £243,000,000. Keynes to Cunliffe, 9 Apr. 1917, “Note on the Financial Arrangements between the United Kingdom and the Allies,” Public Record Office, T 172/422.

42 Loderhose, A History of Morgan, Harjes et Cie, 1872-1932, J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 116, 38-42.

43 These developments can be traced in the Nye Committee report. U.S. Senate, Special Committee investigating the Munitions Industry, 74th Congress, 2nd session, 1936, report no. 944, part 6, chapter one, 9-29.

44 Jusserand to ministère des affaires étrangères, 27 Sept. 1914, Archives du ministère des affaires étrangères, Guerre 1914-1918/1456/368.

45 See Jusserand's report to Théophile Delcassé, the minister of foreign affairs, 29 Oct. 1914, Archives du ministère des finances, MF B 31.717, États-Unis 1914/597.

46 Jack Morgan to J. Ridgely Carter, 3 Feb. 1915, J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 190. Carter was the junior partner in Morgan. Harjes, having been admitted to the partnership in 1914.

47 J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 41, Day to Day Memorandum, 26 Dec. 1914.

48 J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 41, Day to Day Memorandum, 1.3 Dec. 1914.

49 J.P. Morgan, Jr., Papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 41, Day to Day Memorandum, 11 Jan. 1915.

50 J.P. Morgan, Jr., Papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 41, Day to Day Memorandum, 13 Dec. 1914.

51 J.P. Morgan, Jr., Papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 41, Day to Day Memorandum, 12 Jan. 1915.

52 Jack Morgan to Herman Harjes, 22 Apr. 1915, Morgan Bank Papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Apr. 1915 visit of J.P. Morgan, Jr., to England, folder 1; Davison and Lamont to Jack Morgan, 20 Apr. 1915, Morgan Bank Papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Apr. 1915 visit of J.P. Morgan, Jr., to England, folder 3; Davison to Jack Morgan, 20 Apr. 1915, Morgan Bank Papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Apr. 1915 visit of J.P. Morgan, Jr., to England, folder 2.

53 Horn, Martin, “External Finance in Anglo-French Relations, 1914-1917,” International History Review 17 (Feb. 1995): 6062.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

54 Jack Morgan to Harjes, 22 Apr. 1915, Morgan Bank Papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, folder 1.

55 Homberg published his memoirs under the title Les Coulisses de l'histoire, 1898-1920 (Paris, 1938)Google Scholar. See also Homberg, Octave, L'Imperialisme américain (Paris, 1929)Google Scholar.

56 Nouailhat, France et États-Unis, 295.

57 J.P. Morgan, Jr., Papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, 11 Jan. 1915, Day to Day Memorandum, Box 41.

58 The letter is nine typed pages long in which there are only three references to Homberg and Earnest Mallet, the delegate representing the Bank of France. They are never referred to by name, while the British delegates are referred to frequently and always by name. Jack Morgan to E. C. Grenfell, 12 Nov. 1915, J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 12.

59 Jack Morgan to J.P. Morgan & Co., 21 Feb. 1916, J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 35. See also the cables from the British ambassador at Washington, Sir Cecil Spring-Rice to the foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, describing the clash between Homberg and the Morgan partners. Spring-Rice to Grey, 2 and 5 Dec. 1915, Public Record Office, Foreign Office 800/85.

60 On the American Foreign Securities Company loan see Yves-Henri Nouailhat, “Un emprunt français aux États-Unis en juillet 1916: l'emprunt de l'American Foreign Securities Company, “ Revue d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine 14 (Oct.-Dec. 1967): 356-374.

61 James Brown to Benjamin Strong, 4 Aug. 1916, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Strong papers, 610.1, The reference was to Homberg and J. F. Bloch, who succeeded Homberg as the French financial representative in New York. Brown was referring to separate operations—Brown Brothers handled a commercial acceptance credit for France which appeared concurrently with the American Foreign Securities Company loan led by J.P. Morgan & Co.

62 Rousseau, Guy, “Le Conseil des ministres en 1916, d'après les notes d'Etienne Clémentel,” Guerres Mondiales et Conflits Contemporains 171 (July 1993): 145Google Scholar

63 Herman Harjes to Jack Morgan, 23 Apr. 1915, Morgan Bank Papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Herman Harjes file.

64 On which theme, see pages 98-99.

65 The phrase was Lamont's. Lamont, Across World Frontiers, 79.

66 Jack Morgan to Davison, 21 Feb. 1916, J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 35/16646.

67 A transcript of the talks held in Paris is in Archives du ministere des finances, MF B 31.622.

68 Two accounts of these discussions exist: first, the Report to the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the British Members of the Joint Anglo-French Financial Committee, Public Record Office, T 170/95; and second, Procès-verbal, Archives du ministère des finances, MF B 12.677 A1. The latter is the more complete of the two.

69 Other firms had handled the raising of funds for France outside of the House of Morgan—Brown Brothers for example provided commercial credit to France. However, the City of Paris loan was the first of its type that was not handled by J.P. Morgan & Co.

70 Chernow, The House of Morgan, 193-195.

71 Roberts, “Willard D. Straight,” 27-32.

72 Herman Harjes to Jack Carter, 9 Nov. 1916, Morgan Bank Papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, 312.

73 Herman Harjes to Jack Morgan, 3 Nov. 1916, Morgan Bank Papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, 312A/80095, 80096.

74 For details see Morgan, E. V., Studies in British Financial Policy, 1914-1925 (London, 1952), 324Google Scholar.

75 Until 1917 the British government obtained securities that were salable in the United States on a voluntary basis, offering various inducements to persuade investors to tender their shares. Not enough securities were being tendered, however, and early in 1917 the Treasury, through the Defence of the Realm Act, compelled investors to surrender securities which it deemed desirable. Full details can be found in Report of the American Dollar Securities Committee, 4 June 1919, Public Record Office, T 170/130.

76 Davison to Harjes, 20 Dec. 1916, Morgan Bank Papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, 312A.

77 J.P. Morgan & Co. to Harjes, 2 Nov. 1916, Morgan Bank papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, 312.

78 Davison to Jack Morgan, 23 Dec. 1914, J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 34, Cables relating to the Establishment of the Purchasing Agency in 1914-1915.

79 Davison to J.P. Morgan & Co., 9 Sept. 1916, Morgan Bank Papers, 312/472.

80 Soutou, L'Or et le sang, 156-158.

81 Ribat, Alexandre, Journal et correspondances inédités 1914-1922 (Paris, 1936), 33.Google Scholar

82 Soutou, L'Or et le sang, 501-519; Trachtenberg, Marc, “‘A New Economic Order’: Etienne Clémentel and French Economic Diplomacy during the First World War,” French Historical Studies 10 (Fall 1977): 315341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

83 Kaspi, Le Temps des Américains, 47-58; 330-334.

84 Jack Morgan to Jack Carter, 12 Sept. 1917, J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 14.

85 Jack Morgan to Jack Carter, 16 Now 1918, J.P. Morgan. Jr., papers. Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 15/24.

86 Davison to Jack Morgan, 23 Dec. 1914, J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 34.

87 Jack Morgan to E. C. Grenfell, 23 Dec. 1918, J.P. Morgan Jr. papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 33/cables 1913-1921.

88 See the comments by Burk, Kathleen, “The House of Morgan in Financial Diplomacy. 1920-1930,” in Anglo-American Relations in the 1920s, ed. McKercher, B. J. C. (Edmonton, 1990), 126127.Google Scholar

89 Lamont to Florence Lamont, 6 June 1919, quoted in Glaser, Elisabeth, “The Making of the Economic Peace,” in The Treaty of Versailles: A Reassessment after 75 Years, ed. Boemeke, Manfred, Feldman, Gerald, and Glaser, Elisabeth (Washington, 1998), 398399Google Scholar; Lamont to R. H. Brand, 10 June 1919. quoted in Schuker, Stephen, “The Origins of American Stahilization Policy in Europe,” in Confrontation and Cooperation: Germany and the United States in the Era of World War I, 1900-1924, ed. Schröder, Hans Jürgen (Oxford, 1993), 387.Google Scholar

90 Stettinius to Grayson Murphy. 20 July 1919, Edward R. Stettinius, Sr., papers, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, RS Box 14, folder 243. Grayson Murphy was the vice president of Guaranty Trust at this time and subsequently president of the Foreign Commerce Corporation.

91 Roberts, “Willard Straight,” 38-39.

92 Schuker, Stephen, The End of French Predominance in Europe (Chapel Hill, 1976)Google Scholar, and Silverman, Reconstructing Europe after the Great War, esp. chapter six, provide guides to the activities of J.P. Morgan & Co.

93 Burk, “The House of Morgan in Financial Diplomacy, 1920-1930,” in Anglo-American Relations in the 1920s, 129.

94 Jack Morgan to George Whitney, 5 Nov. 1921, J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 36.

95 Stettinius to Jack Morgan, 12 Apr. 1919, J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers. Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 33, cables 1913-1921.

96 Quoted in Forbes, Stettinius, Sr, 109.

97 On the plan to have Morgan Grenfell take an interest in Morgan, Harjes, see Edward R. Stettinius, Sr, papers, RS Box 15, folder 246.

98 Other Americans subsequently became partners, including Bernard S. Carter, the son of John Ridgely Carter, in Jan. 1924 and Mr. Benjamin Joy in Jan. 1928. See J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 116, Morgan et Cie, historical data.

99 Stettinius to Martin Egan, 20 Sept. 1919, Edward R. Stettinius, Sr, papers, RS Box 8, folder 162. Egan handled publicity for J.P. Morgan & Co. along with a variety of tasks that would today be described as “dirty work.”

100 Jay to Stettinius, 13 Oct. 1919, Edward R. Stettinius, Sr, papers, RS Box 11, folder 206.

101 The firm was renamed Morgan et Cie. See J.P. Morgan, Jr., papers, Pierpont Morgan Library, Box 116, Morgan et Cie, historical data.

102 See the comments by Schuker, The End of French Predominance in Europe, 12-13. For a lively attack on the idea that a decadent France inexorably moved towards catastrophe in 1940, see Young, Robert, France and the Origins of the Second World War (New York, 1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. A recent overview, which emphasizes the lack of consensus among scholars on the issue of the Fall of France in 1940, is Boyce's, Robert introduction to French Foreign and Defence Policy, 1918-1940, ed. Boyce, Robert (London, 1998), 110.Google Scholar

103 Denise Artaud, “Reparations and War Debts: The Restoration of French Financial Power, 1919-1929,” in French Foreign and Defence Policy, 1918-1940. 89-106.

104 Thomas W. Lamont, letter to the New York Times, 18 Oct. 1935, 22.