As a further guarantee that the roads would never again squander money, a majority of their stock was transferred to “voting trusts.” These were usually a euphemism for Pierpont and three or four of his cronies, who ran the railroads, typically for a five-year period. It was an extension of Pierpont’s old trick of trading money for power, and it usurped commercial power on a scale unprecedented in banking history. No longer would the banker just finance and advise his clients; now he would intervene directly in running the companies. The distinction between finance and industry was eroding
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