The Financier · Chapter
Chapter XXI explained
Cowperwood and Stener discuss manipulating city funds to acquire street railway lines, including the North Pennsylvania and the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Street lines.
What happens
Cowperwood and Stener discuss manipulating city funds to acquire street railway lines, including the North Pennsylvania and the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Street lines. Cowperwood advises Stener to work directly with him rather than through other politicians like Strobik, Wycroft, and Harmon, emphasizing their successful partnership in city-loan certificate trading. Stener, now wealthy and confident, is receptive to Cowperwood's proposal for future exclusive deals.
Themes in this chapter
Ambition and Success
Cowperwood's relentless pursuit of the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Street line and his strategic manipulation of Stener illustrate his ambition for financial empire-building.
Corruption and Power
The use of city treasury funds for private speculation, bribery of legislators, and the exclusion of higher political powers highlight systemic corruption and the pursuit of power.
Deception and Self-Justification
Cowperwood rationalizes his financial morality as situational, distinguishing between outright theft and opportunistic profit-taking within a corrupt system.
Characters to notice
- Frank Algernon Cowperwood
Cowperwood strategizes to acquire the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Street line using city money, advises Stener to bypass other politicians, and reflects on his financial morality as an opportunist.
- George W. Stener
Stener, now wealthy and well-dressed, visits Cowperwood to discuss the North Pennsylvania deal and is persuaded to consider future exclusive partnerships with Cowperwood.
- Edward Strobik
Strobik is mentioned as a key figure in arranging the North Pennsylvania deal and as a partner Cowperwood advises Stener to sideline.
- Terrence Relihan
Relihan is the financial representative at Harrisburg who informs Cowperwood that legislative action requires bribery or negotiable securities.
- Henry Worthington Cowperwood
Cowperwood's father is referenced as the banker at whose bank Cowperwood plans to hypothecate stock.
Key passages
“Morality varied, in his mind at least, with conditions, if not climates.”
Cowperwood believed that what was morally right or wrong depended on the situation, not on universal principles.
Reflects Cowperwood's flexible ethical code, justifying his actions within a corrupt system.
“The one disagreeable thing in connection with this transaction with Stener was that neither Butler, Mollenhauer nor Simpson, who were the actual superiors of Stener and Strobik, knew anything about it.”
Cowperwood worried that the deal with Stener might anger the higher political bosses if they discovered it.
Highlights the risk of operating outside the established political hierarchy.
“Each significant legislator, if he yielded his vote or his influence, must be looked after.”
Every important lawmaker who supported a bill had to be financially compensated.
Illustrates the pervasive bribery in state politics during this era.