The Plumbing Company That Broke A Bank Monopoly

Alexander Hamilton stood before New York's legislature and passionately defended a plan to save a grieving city. He had no idea what was actually hiding inside it.

On September 1, 1799, the Bank of the Manhattan Company opened for business at 40 Wall Street, born from a charter Aaron Burr had written months earlier under the banner of bringing clean water to New York City after a deadly yellow fever epidemic. Buried inside that charter, and championed unknowingly by his own rival, was a clause allowing surplus capital to be used for banking, breaking Hamilton's Federalist party's grip on the city's finances. The rivalry it deepened outlived them both, and decades later, both men's banking institutions merged into the same modern company, JPMorgan Chase.

This is bsnsHistory, the daily podcast about the moments when business quietly reshaped the world.

Written and hosted by Ron Trucks. Research and editing by Rodney Russ. Sound design by Angela Cahoy. Music by Cody Martin and Soundstripe.

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