Answer:
Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian and Persian
A federal banking system
Securities Bonds giving the government influx in money
As I recall it was rolled-steel girders riveted together, probably from shipbuilding, together with steam-powered winches and an abundance of cheap steel. As opposed to European cathedrals erected with animal-powered winches and with more expensive forged iron bracing (one of the big cathedrals has a kind or iron corset to keep the walls from bursting outwards).
