Summary Of Capital Money In New York City

NYC: What is at stake in native-born and immigrants finance in the 19th century?

When thinking of NYC’s economic growth and development of the 19th century, the story is often simplified and granted to factors such as the rise of civilization and commerce. Despite the somewhat truth behind these two themes, their general depictions often obscure the more complicated history behind the dynamics of labor and capital, and the way it affected its. When considering people's financial life and opportunities, one must look at a diverse group of academic sources to understand what was at stake for the native-born and immigrant population, and how they shaped the contours of the city’s history debate. Scholars have researched about financial institutions,

Scholars have analyzed the history of NYC’s economic growth, mobility, and power from the perspectives of the native-born as well as of the immigrant population. Steve Jaffe & Jessica Lautin in their book, Capital of Capital: Money, Banking + Power in New York City 1784-2012, present the conflicting views between financial growth and people’s interests. With an economy that revolves around credit, the market opened doors for lucrative investment opportunities that encourage stock exchange. During the late 19th century, all these innovations let the financial elite move forward and dominate the livelihood of the market (108). Despite that the middle-class was not even getting a minimum fraction of the pie, they still benefited from the capital funneled to the city. The authors do not argue against the financial elite, but they presented this as evidence of NYC’s competitive and growing

He unfolds the paradox of the Gilded Ages financial corruption, which is to get as much debt as possible to make profits (XX). His ideas present a compelling argument concerning the tide relationship between politics and business, and the reasons political and financial corruption will always be intertwined (43). On the other hand, Tyler Anbinder in his article, Moving beyond “Rags to Riches”: New York’s Irish Famine Immigrants and their Surprising Savings Accounts, argues that economic growth and mobility for the Irish immigrants was a reasonable possibility. With new documents and findings, scholars have been able to see that nearly 40% of Irish immigrant depositors were able to save in the Emigrant Savings Bank the modern equivalent of $10,000 (743). Moreover, he suggests that second generation immigrants were doing better off financially than their parents. With such a significant amount in their savings account and inter-generational progress, Anbinder encourages for a new narrative of “rags-to-riches” which re-conceptualizes the view of economic mobility for