MERCANTILE (or COMMERCIAL) AGENCIES  , the name given in America to organizations designed to collect, record and distribute to regular clients information relative to the standing of commercial firms . In Great Britain and some European countries trade protective societies, composed of merchants and trades-men, are formed for the promotion of trade, and members ex-change information regarding the standing of business houses . These societies had their origin in the associations formed in the middle of the 19th century for the purpose of disseminating information regarding bankruptcies, assignments and bills of sale . The mercantile agency in the United States is a much more comprehensive organization . It came into existence after the financial crisis of 1837 . Trade in the United States had become scattered over a wide territory . Communication was slow, and the town merchant was without adequate information as to the standing of many business men seeking credit . Undoubtedly the severity of the collapse of 1837 was due in part to the insufficiency of this information . New York merchants, who had suffered so severely, determined to organize a head-quarters where reports regarding the standing of customers could be exchanged . Lewis Tappan (1788–1873), founder of the Journal of Commerce (1828) and a prominent anti-slavery leader, undertook the work, and established in New York, in 1841, the Mercantile Agency, the first organization of its kind . The system has been wonderfully developed and extended since .