On Our Name
In 1864, Junius Morgan — grandfather of J.P. Morgan — took over a prominent merchant bank in London. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out, he saw a contrarian opportunity: lending to a France that most investors had written off. Before committing, however, he needed answers to two critical questions.
- Would France survive as a nation?
- And if it did, would it honour its debts?
To find out, he turned to Gerson von Bleichröder, a financier with direct access to Bismarck. What he learned was decisive: Bismarck's ambition was German unification, not France's destruction — and France had an impeccable record of repaying its creditors. Armed with that intelligence, Morgan extended a syndicated loan, an intervention that ultimately proved highly successful.
We offer such geopolitical advisory services.