page_title: History of New York City (1898–1945)
section_title: Finance
hierarchical_section_title: History of New York City (1898–1945) / Economy / Finance
context_page_description: During the years of 1898–1945, New York City consolidated. New York City became the capital of national communications, trade, and finance, and of popular culture and high culture. More than one-fourth of the 300 largest corporations in 1920 were headquartered there.
  The era began with the formation of the consolidated city of the five boroughs in 1898, with a total population of 3.4 million. New transportation links, especially the New York City Subway, opened in 1904, bound together the new metropolis. Increased immigration of unskilled Catholic and Jewish workers from Southern and Eastern Europe expanded the labor force until the World War ended immigration in 1914. Labor shortages during the war attracted African Americans from the Southeast, who headed north as part of the Great Migration. They sponsored the Harlem Renaissance of literature and culture celebrating the black experience.
  The Roaring Twenties were years of glamour and wealth, highlighted by a construction boom, with skyscrapers built higher and higher in the famous skyline. New York's financial sector came to dominate the national and the world economies.
context_section_description: New York became the financial center of the United States before the Civil War, specializing in railroad securities. By 1900 it grew even more dominant and was starting to approach London as a world financial center. There were thousands of successful bankers and financiers; a central figure was J.P. Morgan, whose House of Morgan set up national financing programs for the steel, agricultural implements, shipping, and other industries. It also financed much of the British and French war efforts in World War I. John D. Rockefeller, of Standard Oil, expanded from a dominant position in oil to other industries as well as banking. Andrew Carnegie dominated steel until he sold out to Morgan in 1901. After 1900, Rockefeller and Carnegie largely devoted their interest to philanthropy, as to a certain extent did Morgan. With the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York became a powerful player under its dynamic president Benjamin Strong. By 1917, New York was funding the world war efforts of Britain, France and for other Allies. By the 1920s, New York had surpassed London as a world banking center. The New York Stock Exchange was the national focus of wealth making and speculation until its shares suddenly collapsed late in 1929, setting off the worldwide Great Depression.
caption: Poster about air service, in 1937