Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T18:27:20.120Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Untold History of Transparency: Mercantile Agencies, the Law, and the Lawyers (1851–1916)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

Marc Flandreau  and
Gabriel Geisler Mesevage
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper discusses the origins of rating in the second half of the nineteenth century. We review and criticize existing narratives, which—echoing a story told by lawyers favorable to (or employed by) the agencies—have alleged that a cultural shift in normative views, evidenced in an evolution of court decisions, provided legal protection (against libel) to agencies, and permitted the development of printed credit reports. Such a view is inconsistent with evidence from actual judicial decisions and from our exploration of archival material. Looking at both litigated and settled cases, we show that the rise of mercantile agencies in the late nineteenth century was the product of a farsighted corporate strategy applied ruthlessly to a legal system that was still very reluctant to permit the agencies to “commoditize” credit.

Type
Articles
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 2014 , pp. 213 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Books

Auerbach, Jerold S. Unequal Justice: Lawyers and Social Change in Modern America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Balleisen, Edward. Navigating Failure: Bankruptcy and Commercial Society in Antebellum America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Catlin, William. W. Echoes of the Sunset Club. Chicago: Howard, Bartels and Co, 1891.Google Scholar
Chinn, William Yates. The Mercantile Agencies Against Commerce. Chicago: C.H. Kerr, 1896.Google Scholar
Coleman, Peter. Debtors and Creditors in America: Insolvency, Imprisonment for Debt and Bankruptcy, 1607–1900. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1974.Google Scholar
Cooley, Thomas McIntyre. A treatise on the Constitutional Limitations Which Rest Upon the Legislative Power of the States of the American Union. Chicago: Little, Brown, 1878.Google Scholar
Cooley, Thomas McIntyre. A Treatise on the Constitutional Limitations Which Rest Upon the Legislative Power of the States of the American Union. Chicago: Little, Brown, 1883.Google Scholar
Cooley, Thomas McIntyre. A Treatise on the Constitutional Limitations Which Rest Upon the Legislative Power of the States of the American Union. Chicago: Little, Brown, 1890.Google Scholar
Cooley, Thomas McIntyre. A Treatise on the Law of Torts. Chicago: Callaghan and Cy., 1888.Google Scholar
Dun, Barlow and Co. Reports of the Four Leading Cases Against the Mercantile Agency for Slander and Libel. Chicago: Dun, Barlow and Co., 1873.Google Scholar
Earling, Peter R. Whom to trust, A practical treatise on Mercantile Credits. Chicago: Rand, McNally, 1890.Google Scholar
Errant, Joseph, W. Justice for the Friendless and the Poor: An Address Before the Illinois Bar Association, January 11; Before the Society for Ethical Culture, of Chicago, January 29, 1888. S.l.: s.n., 1888.Google Scholar
Errant, Joseph W. The Law Relating to Mercantile Agencies. Philadelphia: Johnson, 1889.Google Scholar
Foulke, Roy A. The Sinews of American Commerce. New York: Dun & Bradstreet, 1941.Google Scholar
Freyer, Tony. Forums of Order: The Federal Courts and Business in American History. Greenwich: JAI Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Meagher, Thomas Francis. The Commercial Agency “System” of the United States and Canada Exposed: Is the Secret Inquisition a Curse or a Benefit? New York: s.n., 1876.Google Scholar
Norris, James D. R.G. Dun & Co., 1841–1900: The Development of Credit Reporting in the Nineteenth Century Westport: Greenwood, 1978.Google Scholar
Odgers, , William Blake, and Eames, James Bromley. A Digest of the Law of Libel and Slander. London: Stevens, 1905.Google Scholar
Olegario, Rowena. A Culture of Credit: Embedding Trust and Transparency in American Business. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Sandage, Scott. Born Losers: a History of Failure in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Skeel, David. Debt’s Dominion: A History of Bankruptcy Law in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Temin, Peter. The Jacksonian Economy. New York: W.W. Norton, 1969.Google Scholar
Wiman, Erastus. Chances of Success: Episodes and Observations in the Life of a Busy Man. New York: Stanley Bradley, 1895.Google Scholar

Articles and Essays

Atherton, Lewis E. “The Problem of Credit Rating in the Ante-Bellum South.” Journal of Southern History 12, no. 4 (1946): 534–56.Google Scholar
Bodenhorn, Howard Rockoff, Hugh. “Regional Interest Rates in Antebellum America.” In Strategic Factors in American Economic History: A Volume to Honor Robert W. Fogel, edited by Goldin, Claudia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992: 159–87.Google Scholar
Carruthers, Bruce Cohen, Barry. “Calculability and Trust: Credit Rating in Nineteenth Century America.” Working Paper, Northwestern University, September 2010.Google Scholar
Domowitz, Ian Tamer, Elie. “Two Hundred Years of Bankruptcy: A Tale of Legislation and Economic Fluctuations.” Working Paper 97-25, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, July 1997.Google Scholar
Farole, Donald J. Jr. “Reexamining Litigant Success in State Supreme Courts.” Law & Society Review 33, no. 4, (1999): 1043–58.Google Scholar
Galanter, Marc. “Why the “Haves” Come out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change.” Law & Society Review 9, no. 1 (1974): 95–160.Google Scholar
Lauer, Josh. “From Rumor to Written Record: Credit Reporting and the Invention of Financial Identity in Nineteenth-Century America.” Technology & Culture 49 (2008): 304–5.Google Scholar
Madison, James H. “The Evolution of Commercial Credit Reporting Agencies in Nineteenth-Century America.” The Business History Review 48, no. 2 (1974): 164–86.Google Scholar
McCurdy, Charles. “American Law and the Marketing Structure of the Large Corporation, 1875–1890.” Journal of Economic History 38, no. 3 (1978): 631–49.Google Scholar
O’Connor, Charles. “Argument in the case of Ormsby against Douglass, in the superior court of New York, 1858.” In Legal Masterpieces. Specimens of Argumentation and Exposition by Eminent Lawyers, edited by Veeder, V. V., vol. II, 874–85. Chicago: Callaghan and Company, 1912.Google Scholar
Olegario, Rowena. “Credit Reporting Agencies: A Historical Perspective.” In Credit Reporting Systems and the International Economy, edited by Miller, Margaret J.. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003: 115–60.Google Scholar
Priest, George L. Klein, Benjamin. “The Selection of Disputes for Litigation.” The Journal of Legal Studies 13 (1984): 1–55.Google Scholar
Seber, George A. F. “A Review of Estimating Animal Abundance.” Biometrics 42, no. 2 (1986): 267–92.Google Scholar
Smith, Jeremiah. “Conditional Privilege for Mercantile Agencies. Macintosh v. Dun. I.” Columbia Law Review 14, no. 3 (March 1914): 187–210.Google Scholar
Smith, Jeremiah. “Conditional Privilege for Mercantile Agencies. Macintosh v. Dun. II.” Columbia Law Review 14, no. 4 (April 1914): 296–320.Google Scholar
Songer, Donald R. Sheehan, Reginald S. Haire, Susan Brodie. “Do the ‘Haves’ Come out Ahead over Time? Applying Galanter’s Framework to Decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, 1925–1988.” Law & Society Review 33, no. 4, (1999): 811–32.Google Scholar
Songer, Donald R. Sheehan, Reginald S.. “Who Wins on Appeal? Upperdogs and Underdogs in the United States Courts of Appeals.” American Journal of Political Science 36, no. 1, (1992): 235–58.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Stanton Bliss Cartwright Kagan, Robert A. Friedman, Lawrence M.. “Do the “Haves” Come out Ahead? Winning and Losing in State Supreme Courts, 1870–1970.” Law & Society Review 21, no. 3, (1987): 403–46.Google Scholar
Wittes, Jane Sidel, Victor W.. “A Generalization of the Simple Capture-Recapture Model with Applications to Epidemiological Research.” Journal of Chronic Disease 21, no. 5 (1968): 287–301.Google Scholar
Wyatt-Brown, Bertram. “God and Dun and Bradstreet, 1841–1851.” Business History Review 40, no. 4 (1966): 432–50.Google Scholar

Magazines and Newspapers

Anon. “A dry goods jobber in 1861.” The Atlantic Monthly, February, 1861.Google Scholar
Anon. “Laws for the collection of debts.” Hunts’ Merchants Magazine, 1847, 440.Google Scholar
Anon. “Law of debtor and creditor in Louisiana.” Hunts’ Merchants Magazine, Vol. 16, 1847.Google Scholar
Anon. “Law of debtor and creditor in Alabama.” Hunts’ Merchants Magazine, Vol. 16, 1847.Google Scholar
Anon. “The Mercantile Agency.” Hunt’s Merchants’ Magazine, vol. 24, January 1851.Google Scholar
Anon. (“T.”) “Mercantile Agencies.” New York Daily Times (1851–1857), October 29, 1851.Google Scholar
Yokel, Yan. “Value of Mercantile Ratings.” New York Times, November 18, 1900.Google Scholar
Tappan, McKillop and Co. “Commercial Law and Collection.” American Lawyer, 1895, 360.Google Scholar

Law Cases

Commonwealth v. Stacey, 8 Phila. 617 (Pa. Quar. Sess. 1871).Google Scholar
Douglass v. Daisley, 57L.R.A. 475, 114 F. 628.Google Scholar
Erber & Stickler v. R.G. Dun & Co., April 1882, 4 McCrary 160, 12 F. 526.Google Scholar
Johnson v. The Bradstreet Co., 77 Ga. 172, 1886 WL 1483 (Ga.).Google Scholar
King v. Patterson, 49 N.J.L. 417, 9 A. 705.Google Scholar
Minter et al. v. Bradstreet Co., 174 Mo. 444, 73 S.W. 668.Google Scholar
Mower-Hobart Co. v. R.G. Dun & Co. 131 F. 812Google Scholar
Ormsby v. Douglass, 10 Tiffany 477, 37 N.Y. 477.Google Scholar
Pacific Packing Co. v. Bradstreet (1914) 139 p.1007.Google Scholar
Sherwood v. Gilbert (1870) 2 Albany LJ 323.Google Scholar
State v. Morgan, 2 S.D. 32, 48 N.W. 314 (1891)Google Scholar
“State vs. Morgan,” Reports of Cases Decided in the Supreme Court of the State of South Dakota, 1891.Google Scholar

Archival Sources

Dun and Bradstreet Corporation Records, Baker Library, Harvard Business School, Cambridge.Google Scholar