The Titan · Chapter
American Match explained
Cowperwood consolidates his power in Chicago through shrewd financial maneuvers, including loaning money to hostile banks and building a reserve of government bonds.
What happens
Cowperwood consolidates his power in Chicago through shrewd financial maneuvers, including loaning money to hostile banks and building a reserve of government bonds. Meanwhile, the national silver agitation threatens financial markets. Cowperwood's enemies—Schryhart, Hand, Arneel, and Merrill—plot to trap him by encouraging call loans. When Stackpole and Hull, backers of American Match, seek help due to the silver crisis, Cowperwood declines, recognizing an opportunity to let his rivals' venture collapse.
Themes in this chapter
Ambition and Power
Cowperwood's relentless expansion of his elevated railway empire and his strategic manipulation of banks and stocks demonstrate his drive for dominance.
Wealth and Its Illusions
The precarious nature of wealth is highlighted through the silver crisis and the vulnerability of American Match stock, showing how fortunes can be threatened by political and economic forces.
Politics and Public Opinion
The silver agitation and the rise of a populist political leader reflect the tension between the moneyed elite and the masses, influencing financial markets and Cowperwood's strategies.
Characters to notice
- Frank A. Cowperwood
Continues to expand his elevated railway empire, manipulates stocks, and builds a cash reserve. Suspects a plot by his enemies and declines to bail out American Match.
- Addison Cowperwood
Assists Cowperwood in loaning money to local banks and is informed of Cowperwood's suspicions about Hand, Schryhart, Arneel, and Merrill.
- Norman Schryhart
Plots with Arneel to lend Cowperwood call money in order to trap him financially. Also involved in backing American Match.
- Timothy Arneel
Collaborates with Schryhart to set a financial trap for Cowperwood by encouraging call loans. Also a backer of American Match.
- Hosmer Hand
Part of the group of enemies plotting against Cowperwood; involved in backing American Match.
- Benoni Stackpole
Co-founder of American Match; approaches Cowperwood for a loan or stock purchase due to the silver crisis, but is refused.
Key passages
“By manipulating the vast quantity of stocks and bonds of which he was now the master he was making money hand over fist, his one rule being that six percent was enough to pay any holder who had merely purchased his stock as an outsider.”
Cowperwood profited heavily by controlling stocks and bonds, ensuring that outside investors received only six percent returns while he kept the excess.
Illustrates Cowperwood's financial strategy and self-enrichment.
“The thing that he suspected was really true. Schryhart, Hand, and Arneel, watching him through their agents and brokers, had soon discovered—in the very earliest phases of the silver agitation and before the real storm broke—that he was borrowing in New York, in London, in certain quarters of Chicago, and elsewhere.”
Cowperwood's suspicion that his enemies were monitoring his borrowing was correct; they tracked his loans across multiple cities early in the silver crisis.
Reveals the coordinated plot against Cowperwood.
“To take this stock at one-fifty on loan and peddle it out swiftly and fully at two-twenty or less would bring American Match crumbling about their ears.”
If Cowperwood borrowed against the stock at $150 and sold it quickly at $220 or less, he could collapse American Match.
Shows Cowperwood's awareness of the opportunity to ruin his rivals.