1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910954567503321

Titolo

Enterprising America : Businesses, Banks, and Credit Markets in Historical Perspective / / William J. Collins, Robert A. Margo

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago : , : University of Chicago Press, , [2015]

©2015

ISBN

9780226261768

022626176X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (ix, 287 pages) : illustrations, maps

Collana

National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report

Disciplina

338.0973

Soggetti

Business enterprises - United States - History

Business enterprises - United States - Finance - History

Commercial credit - United States - History

Bank loans - United States - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Previously issued in print: 2015.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Revisiting American Exceptionalism: Democracy and the Regulation of Corporate Governance -- 2. Corporate Governance and the Development of Manufacturing Enterprises in Nineteenth- Century Massachusetts -- 3. The Evolution of Bank Boards of Directors in New York, 1840‒1950 -- 4. Did Railroads Make Antebellum US Banks More Sound? -- 5. Sources of Credit and the Extent of the Credit Market -- 6. Economies of Scale in Nineteenth- Century American Manufacturing Revisited -- 7 Were Antebellum Cotton Plantations Factories in the Field? -- Contributors -- Author Index -- Subject Index

Sommario/riassunto

The rise of America from a colonial outpost to one of the world's most sophisticated and productive economies was facilitated by the establishment of a variety of economic enterprises pursued within the framework of laws and institutions that set the rules for their organization and operation. To better understand the historical processes central to American economic development, Enterprising America brings together contributors who address the economic behavior of American firms and financial institutions-and the



associated legal institutions that shaped their behavior-throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Collectively, the contributions provide an account of the ways in which businesses, banks, and credit markets promoted America's extraordinary economic growth. Among the topics that emerge are the rise of incorporation and its connection to factory production in manufacturing, the organization and operation of large cotton plantations in comparison with factories, the regulation and governance of banks, the transportation revolution's influence on bank stability and survival, and the emergence of long-distance credit in the context of an economy that was growing rapidly and becoming increasingly integrated across space.