The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 (Oxford History of the United States)

by Richard White

Cooke had promised to limit his bank’s advances to the railroad to $500,000, but by the summer of 1873 they had reached $7 million. The Northern Pacific was sucking him dry, and its unmarketable bonds constituted the only security for its loans.