Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
Category:Mercantile Agency
MERCANTILE AGENCY. Mercantile (or Commercial) Agencies, is the name given in the United States to organizations designed to collect, record and distribute to regular clients information relative to the financial standing of commercial firms.
The mercantile agency in the United States 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 businessmen 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 headquarters 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 developed and extended since.
---
Source:
Wikipedia
Companies listing themselves in this manner in Dubuque include:
Pages in category "Mercantile Agency"
The following 10 pages are in this category, out of 10 total.