See also:

• MERCANTILE (or COMMERCIAL) AGENCIES

MERCANTILE (or COMMERCIAL) AGENCIES  , the name given in See also:

• AMERICA

America to organizations designed to collect, See also:

• RECORD (Lat. recordari, to recall to mind, from cor, heart or mind)

record and distribute to See also:

• REGULAR

regular clients See also:

• INFORMATION (from Lat. informare, to give shape or form to, to represent, describe)

information relative to the See also:

• STANDING

standing of commercial firms . In See also:

• GREAT

Great See also:

• BRITAIN (Gr. Hperavuml vi7vot, Bperravia; Lat. Britannia, rarely Britannia)

Britain and some See also:

• EUROPEAN

European countries See also:

• TRADE (O. Eng. trod, footstep, from tredan, to tread; in M. Eng. the forms teed, trod and trade appear, the last in the sense of a beaten track)
• TRADE, BOARD OF

trade protective See also:

• SOCIETIES, LEARNED

societies, composed of merchants and trades-men, are formed for the promotion of trade, and members ex-See also:

• CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. «a urmu', to bend)

change information regarding the standing of business houses . These societies had their origin in the associations formed in the See also:

• MIDDLE

middle of the 19th See also:

• CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century for the purpose of disseminating information regarding bankruptcies, assignments and bills of See also:

• SALE
• SALE, GEORGE (c. 1697-1736)
• SALE, SIR ROBERT HENRY (1782—1845)

sale . The See also:

• MERCANTILE (or COMMERCIAL) AGENCIES

mercantile agency in the See also:

• UNITED

United States is a much more comprehensive organization . It came into existence after the See also:

• FINANCIAL

financial crisis of 1837 . Trade in the United States had become scattered over a wide territory . Communication was slow, and the See also:

• TOWN

town See also:

• MERCHANT (O. Fr. marcheant, modern marchand; from Lat. mercari, to trade, merx, goods, merchandise)

merchant was without adequate information as to the standing of many business men seeking See also:

• CREDIT (Lat. credere, to believe)

credit . Undoubtedly the severity of the collapse of 1837 was due in See also:

• PART

part to the insufficiency of this information . New See also:

• YORK
• YORK (HOUSE OF)
• YORK, EDMUND OF LANGLEY, DUKE OF (1341-1402)
• YORK, EDWARD
• YORK, FREDERICK AUGUSTUS, DUKE OF (1763-1827)
• YORK, RICHARD, DUKE

York merchants, who had suffered so severely, determined to organize a See also:

• HEAD (in 0. Eng. heafad; the word is common to Teutonic languages; cf. Dutch hoofd, Ger. Haupt, generally taken to be in origin connected with Lat. caput, Gr. KerbOvi7)
• HEAD, SIR EDMUND WALKER, BART
• HEAD, SIR FRANCIS BOND, BART

head-quarters where reports regarding the standing of customers could be exchanged . See also:

• LEWIS, HENRY CARVILL
• LEWIS, JOHN FREDERICK (180 1876)
• LEWIS, MATTHEW GREGORY (1775-1818)
• LEWIS, MERIWETHER (1774-1809)
• LEWIS, SIR GEORGE CORNEWALL, BART

Lewis Tappan (1788–1873), founder of the See also:

• JOURNAL
• JOURNAL (through Fr. from late Lat. diurnalis, daily)

Journal of See also:

• COMMERCE
• COMMERCE (Lat. commercium, from, cum, together, and rnerx, merchandise)

Commerce (1828) and a prominent See also:

• ANTI, or CAMPA

anti-See also:

• SLAVERY

slavery See also:

• LEADER, BENJAMIN WILLIAMS (1831– )

leader, undertook the See also:

• WORK

work, and established in New York, in 1841, the Mercantile Agency, the first organization of its See also:

• KIND (O. E. ge-cynde, from the same root as is seen in " kin," supra)

kind . The See also:

• SYSTEM

system has been wonderfully See also:

• DEVELOPED

developed and extended since .