In February 1915, France, Britain and Russia held the first joint financial conference of the First World War. Thereafter, the
Allied Powers agreed to cooperate closely in financial matters to help finance the ongoing war with Germany. The group arrived in New York on 10 September, and were met by
J. P. Morgan Jr., who had been designated as Britain's sole purchasing agent in the United States in January 1915, and Britain's ambassador,
Sir Cecil Spring Rice. Over the course of the following weeks, the Commission had meetings with approximately one hundred prominent American financiers and bankers, including
Charles G. Dawes. Several Jewish financial houses stated they would not participate if Russia, the location of recent
anti-Jewish pogroms, was included in the agreement. On 28 September 1915 it was announced that the syndicate, led by
J.P. Morgan & Co., had reached a credit agreement with the British and French governments. The loan was for $500,000,000, at that point by far the largest single loan in financial history. The loan was issued on five-year, 5 per cent joint British and French bonds, and was entirely controlled by banking corporations for private gain. On 18 September
The Spectator reported that the Germans were attempting to influence American depositors and the directors of major banks, and were trying to arrange a counter-loan of $100,000,000 to Germany to embarrass the negotiations. The US government, under pressure from Spring Rice and still officially neutral, stated that it regarded the loan as an ordinary financial transaction and that it would not interfere in the process. American press generally supported the loan, and
The New York Times decried opponents of the agreement as "anti-American". Financier
James J. Hill hailed the loan as marking the moment that America changed "from being a debtor to a creditor nation". ==References==