JPMorgan Chase began as a company chartered to bring clean water to Manhattan.
Aaron Burr slipped a clause into the Manhattan Company’s 1799 charter letting it start a bank with capital the waterworks did not need, and his rival Alexander Hamilton backed the plan. Within six months its directors voted to open one. Five years later Burr killed Hamilton in a duel, and the bank has owned the dueling pistols since 1930.
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