Non-Immigrant Competition in Banking
Even though Giannini found success in the ways he ran business, that is not to say that other banks were not successful. For instance, J.P. Morgan & Co. was very successful at the time when Giannini was building the Bank of Italy. While they didn’t have the worldwide recognition they have today, J.P. Morgan & Co was one of the most influential banks at the time. In 1901 J.P. Morgan & Co organized the buyout that created United States Steel which was the world's first billion dollar company. While it is not easy for anyone to establish a company as successful as J.P. Morgan & Co or Bank of America, there were factors that may have made J.P. Morgan's journey more manageable. John Pierpont Morgan was born in Hartford Connecticut. His parents were both born on the east coast. Morgan did not have to experience discrimination like Giannini and millions of other Italian-Americans did thtoughout their childhood. In addition to not being affected by the hardships of being an immigrant, Morgan was able to follow in his fathers footsteps as a banker and financier since he came from a somewhat wealthy and successful family.
Even though Giannini most definitely had added struggles to becoming a successful banker, it is not to say that he had it as hard as many Italian-Americans. Similarly to J.P. Morgan, there were opportunities that Giannini had that allowed him to establish the Bank of Italy. After dropping out of college, he helped his step-father in his family business as a produce broker. After he was able to work at his father-in-law’s bank where he then had the idea to begin his own bank and help out less affluent people. Regardless of whether or not he went through the struggles that certain Italian-Americans had to go through, he was still affected by more hardships than other powerful businessmen at the time.