A culture of credit : embedding trust and transparency in American business / Rowena Olegario.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Olegario, Rowena.

Series:

Harvard studies in business history ; 50.

Harvard studies in business history ; 50

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Commercial credit--United States--History--19th century.

Commercial credit.

Mercantile system--United States--History--19th century.

Mercantile system.

Corporate image--United States--History--19th century.

Corporate image.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (288 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the growing and dynamic economy of nineteenth-century America, businesses sold vast quantities of goods to one another, mostly on credit. This book explains how business people solved the problem of whom to trust--how they determined who was deserving of credit, and for how much. Rowena Olegario traces the way resistance, mutual suspicion, skepticism, and legal challenges were overcome in the relentless quest to make information on business borrowers more accurate and available.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Acknowledgments

Contents

Introduction

1. Mercantile Credit in Britain and America, 1700-1860

2. A "System of Espionage": The Origins of the Credit-Reporting Firm

3. Character, Capacity, Capital: How to Be Creditworthy

4. Jewish Merchants and the Struggle over Transparency

5. Growth, Competition, Legitimacy: Credit Reporting in the Late Nineteenth Century

6. From Competition to Cooperation: The Birth of the Credit Man, 1890-1920

Epilogue: Business Credit Reporting in the Twenty-First Century

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-268) and index.

ISBN:

9780674041639

0674041631

OCLC:

923109011