SEVENTY-FIVE 
 YEARS OF 
 
izx IGtbrtB 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
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 Because tt has been said 
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SEVENTY- FIVE YEARS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE MERCANTILE AGENCY 
 R. G. DUN & CO. 
 
 1841-1916 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD NEVILLE VOSE 
 
 Editor^ Dun's International Revieto 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED 
 
 AT THE PRINTING HOUSE OF R. G. DUN & CO. 
 
 Butler axd Nevins Streets, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 MCMXVI 
 
.y6 
 
 Copyright^ 1916 
 R. G. DUN & COMPANY 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 The first mercantile agency in the world was estab- 
 lished in the City of New York in 1841. The same insti- 
 tution is the first in its field to-day — a record of continuous 
 success and uninterrupted expansion throughout three- 
 quarters of a century. Its growth is a notable example 
 of American perseverance and enterprise. At the start, 
 the concern occupied a single small room, with less than 
 half a dozen clerks, who laboriously copied in longhand 
 a set of reports which filled only a few ledgers. To-day 
 it is an organization having branches in practically all of 
 the principal cities of the United States, and in ninety-six 
 of the strategic trade centers abroad, with upward of ten 
 thousand employees in these offices, and over a hundred thou- 
 sand representatives in the less important commercial centers, 
 and with many millions of typewritten reports. 
 
 While credit is almost as old an institution as capital 
 — banks for the safeguarding of which have existed for 
 centuries — it is a most remarkable fact that it was not in 
 the countries of the Old World, with their highly devel- 
 oped civilization, but in the then raw and sparsely settled 
 United States of America, that the first organization for 
 the protection of credit was perfected. This truly great 
 conception — rivaling many epoch-making inventions in its 
 value to mankind — was given to the world by a New York 
 merchant, and the story of its progressive improvement, 
 year by year, for nearly three generations, is one that has 
 never before been told. 
 
 In compiling this brief sketch it was necessary to delve 
 
 i 
 
Sevexty-five Years of 
 
 into numerous dust}' arcliives of the past, to search through 
 files of earh' newspapers and magazines, and to correspond 
 with nearly two hundred and fifty branch-office managers, 
 present or retired. Few of the builders of The Mercantile 
 Agenc}' realized that they were creating an institution of 
 world-wide interest and importance, and they therefore 
 seldom kept any permanent record of the events with which 
 the}' were associated. The men who could say of the early 
 history of the Agency, as did Cfesar of the Gallic War, 
 "All of which I saw and part of which I was," have for 
 the most part passed away. Their chief memorial is the 
 great organization to the upbuilding of which they devoted 
 their lives, and which is now everywhere known as R. G. 
 Dun & Co. In this outline history only the leaders in the 
 great host of Agency workers are mentioned individually, 
 but all — like the soldiers in a well-disciplined army — must 
 share the honor of the achievements described. 
 
 From the dawn of civilization credit has been recognized 
 as one of the most vital factors of business, without which it 
 would be confined to narrow limits. One of the oldest refer- 
 ences to credit is in the Mosaic laws, where in speaking of 
 the release of debts every seventh year the great lawgiver 
 says : "Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbor 
 shall release it." (Deuteronomy 15:2.) Thus the relation 
 of debtor and creditor was a well-recognized one at that 
 period, 1451 B. C. In one of his orations Demosthenes, the 
 famous Athenian statesman, who died 822 B.C., said: "If 
 you were ignorant of this — that credit is the greatest capital 
 of all toward the acquisition of wealth — you would be utterly 
 ignorant." The American Demosthenes, Daniel Webster, 
 who was in the plenitude of his great powers when The ]\Ier- 
 cantile Agency was established, once delivered the following 
 memorable panegyric of credit: 
 
 ii 
 
The INI ercax tile Agency 
 
 Commercial credit is the creation of modern times, 
 and belongs, in its highest perfection, only to the most 
 enlightened and best-governed nations. . . . Credit is tlie 
 vital air of the sy,stem of modern commerce. It has done 
 more, a thousand times more, to enrich nations, than all 
 the mines of all the world. It has excited labor, stimulated 
 manufactures, pushed commerce over every sea, and brought 
 every nation, every kingdom, and every small tribe among 
 the races of men to be known to all the rest. It has raised 
 armies, equipped navies, and, triumphing over the gross 
 power of mere numbers, it has established national 3u- 
 periority on the foundation of intelligence, wealth, and 
 well-directed industry. 
 
 One of t]ie clearest expositions of tlie nature and 
 properties of credit ever written will be found in Chapter IX 
 of Book III in John Stuart :Mill's "Principles of Political 
 Econom3\" In this chapter, which treats of Credit as a 
 Substitute for Money, the foremost master in the teaching 
 of this important science says : 
 
 Credit has a great, but not, as many seem to suppose, 
 a magical power ; it cannot make something out of nothing. 
 . . . Credit being only permission to use the capital of an- 
 other person, the means of production cannot be increased 
 by it, but only transferred. If the borrower's means of 
 production and of employing labour are increased by the 
 credit given him, the lender's are as much diminished. The 
 same sum cannot be used as capital both by the owner and 
 also by the person to whom it is lent; it cannot supply its 
 entire value in wages, tools and material to two sets of 
 labourers at once. . . . All capital (not his own) of wliich 
 any person has really the use, is, and must be, so much 
 subtracted from tlie capital of some one else. 
 
 But though credit is never anything more than a 
 transfer of capital from hand to hand, it is generally, and 
 naturally, a transfer to hands more competent to employ 
 the capital efficiently in production. If there were no such 
 thing as credit, or if, from general insecurity and want of 
 
 iii 
 
S E y E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 confidence, it were scantily practised, many persons who 
 possess more or less of capital, but who from their occupa- 
 tions, or for want of the necessary' skill and knowledge, 
 cannot personally superintend its employment, would derive 
 no benefit from it; their funds M'ould either lie idle, or 
 would be, perhaps, wasted and annihilated in unskilful 
 attempt3 to make them yield a profit. All this capital 
 is now lent at interest, and made available for production. 
 Capital thus circumstanced forms a large portion of the 
 productive resources of any commercial country ; and is 
 naturalh^ attracted to those producers or traders who, being 
 in the greatest business, have the means of employing it to 
 most advantage; because such are both the most desirous 
 to obtain it, and able to give the best security. Although, 
 therefore, the productive funds of the country are not in- 
 creased by credit, they are called into a more complete state 
 of productive activity. . . . 
 
 While credit is thus indispensable for rendering the 
 whole capital of the country productive, it is also a means 
 by wliich the industrial talent of the country is turned 
 to better account for purposes of production. Many a person 
 who has either no capital of his own, or very little, but 
 who has qualifications for business which are known and 
 appreciated by some possessors of capital, is enabled to 
 obtain either advances in money, or more frequently goods 
 on credit, by which his industrial capacities are made in- 
 strumental to the increase of the public wealth; and this 
 benefit will be reaped far more largely, whenever, through 
 better laws and better education, the community shall have 
 made such progress in integrity that personal character can 
 be accepted as a sufficient guarantee, not only against dis- 
 honestly appropriating, but against dishonestly risking, what 
 belongs to another. 
 
 While maii}^ writers and speakers have attempted defini- 
 tions since, no one has ever surpassed this classic passage 
 from Mill with respect to the economic aspects of credit. 
 For our purpose, therefore, it only remains to define credit 
 in its legal aspect, and explain the office of a mercantile 
 
 iv 
 
The ]\Ieiicaxtile Agexcy 
 
 agency in relation thereto. This has been very clearly and 
 tersely done b}^ Francis L. Minton, now and for two score 
 years an adviser and director of The Mercantile Agency in 
 its work, as follows : 
 
 Credit, in a legal sense, may be defined as "a right of 
 action." If a merchant enjoys good credit, as it ls termed, 
 he may go into the market and buy goods, not with money, 
 but by giving his promise to pay money at a future time 
 for them — that is, he creates a right of action against 
 himself. The goods become his property exactly as if he 
 had paid for them in money. The right of action is the price 
 he pays for them, and the right of action is termed a credit, 
 because it is not a right to any specific sum of money, but 
 only a general right against the person of the merchant 
 to demand a sum of money at a future time. . . . When a 
 merchant purchases goods with his credit instead of with 
 money, his credit is valued in money because the seller of 
 the goods accepts his credit as equal in value to money. 
 
 The office of a mercantile agency is to give a merchant 
 information upon which he may determine the value of the 
 right of action which it is proposed he shall accept as the 
 consideration for the transfer of his title to his goods. . . . 
 By far the larger part of mercantile transactions are based 
 upon credit. In other words, by far the larger part of 
 transactions between merchants and manufacturers, which 
 have to do with the passing of the title of goods, are, in 
 effect, a sale of the goods by the seller to the buyer in 
 exchange for the buyer's promise to pay, that is, in ex- 
 change for a right of action against the buyer. Credit, then, 
 made up of simple debts, deposits, bills, notes, etc., is the 
 chief medium of exchange in a commercial sense. ... A 
 well-managed credit amounts to tenfold the funds of a mer- 
 chant, and he gains as much by his credit as if he had 
 ten times as much money. . . . Credit is, therefore, the 
 greatest wealth to every one who carries on commerce. 
 
 According to some authorities the proportion of credit 
 transactions, out of the enormous total to which modern 
 
 V 
 
S E V E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 business gives rise, is as large as ninet^'-five per cent. In 
 fact, it would be practically impossible to carry on the busi- 
 ness of the world to-day without credit, and its universal 
 destruction would be an economic disaster of appalling mag- 
 nitude. In view of the great importance of the subject, 
 it is lioped that this brief history of the first institution in 
 the world for the systematic appraisal and recording of 
 credits will be of interest, not onh' to the friends and clients 
 of The Mercantile Agency, but to all students of economics 
 and of modern business, and particular!}- to the great army 
 of credit men upon whose judgment and sagacity the safety 
 of ever}' mercantile community so largely depends. 
 
 vi 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 The Inception of The Mercantile Agency 
 
 1841-1846 
 
 Ix order to understand clearly how The ]Mer- 
 cantile Agency came into existence when and where 
 it did, it is necessary to recall some of the principal 
 characteristics of the American mercantile commu- 
 nity of seventy-five years ago. The people of the 
 United States were slowly heginning to realize that 
 they were on the frontier of the greatest and richest 
 wilderness ever thrown open for development. It 
 was a period of feverish mercantile activity during 
 which traders made fortunes in a few years, but with 
 alternate spells of severe and sudden depression when 
 the wealth that had been so quickly acquired was 
 often lost with even greater rapidity. 
 
 While pioneers were still blazing trails across the 
 mountains and S23reading out along the river systems 
 of the great central plain, the iron horse had come to 
 solve the problem of bringing the ^^roducts of the in- 
 terior to the seaboard. Beginning in 1826, a few short 
 lines had been built at various points along the coast 
 until by 1840 the total constructed and in operation 
 was 2,818 miles. By 1852 this had increased to 10,814, 
 and by 1860 to over 35,000 miles. In 1841, however, 
 transcontinental lines were undreamed of, and the 
 
 1 
 
Seventy - FIVE Years of 
 
 great trunk routes to the central plain were just being 
 started. On September 23rd, Philip Hone recorded 
 in his invaluable diary the opening of the Erie Rail- 
 road from Piermont to Goshen — not a very long link 
 in the transcontinental chain, truly, but one that had 
 taken six years to finance and build. The inaugural 
 journey was made on platform cars, "exposed to a 
 constant shower of sparks and cinders, like those 
 which accompany a visit to Vesuvius or TEtna, only 
 not half so romantic," the train being "toted by two 
 whizzing, snorting, fire-and-smoke vomiting locomo- 
 tives." An all-rail journey from New York to either 
 Boston or Buffalo was still a long way off in 1841, 
 although short links had been completed. As late as 
 1847 the Pennsylvania Railroad extended only from 
 Philadelphia to Harrisburg, Mr. Hone stating that 
 it took him five days to go from the State capital 
 to Pittsburgh — most of the way by canal boat. The 
 stagecoaches of colonial days were still in use between 
 many points, while in the interior river steamers — 
 which blew up with alarming frequency — were the 
 chief means of locomotion. The trans- Atlantic steam- 
 ship record was reduced from fifteen days to eleven 
 in 1840 by the Acadia, which remained the queen of 
 the early ocean greyhounds until 1848. 
 
 In 1841 the epoch-making invention of the mag- 
 netic telegraph was still in its infancy. It was first 
 announced to the public in April, 1837, its inventor 
 modestly stating that he "presumed that five words 
 could be transmitted in a minute." It was seven years, 
 
 2 
 
The ]M e r c a X t I l e Agency 
 
 however, before the first telegraph hne in the United 
 States was completed — that between Washington 
 and Baltimore. It was not until 1866 that the first 
 Atlantic cable was laid, while the telephone was given 
 to the world ten years later. Postal facilities were 
 equally primitive. In 1840 the first national postage 
 stamps were issued in Great Britain — an improve- 
 ment that was not 
 adopted over here un- 
 til 1847; while it was 
 1856 before prepay- 
 ment of postage was 
 made compulsory by 
 law in this country. 
 
 During the first 
 three or four decades 
 of the nation's history 
 there was a keen 
 rivalry between Xew 
 York, Boston and 
 Philadelphia as to 
 which should become 
 the commercial me- 
 tropolis of the Re- 
 public. The contest 
 was virtually settled 
 by the completion of 
 the Erie Canal in 1825, and during the next decade 
 New York grew very rapidly. The canal made the 
 city the chief port of shipment for the products of 
 the interior and the leading distributing center for 
 imported merchandise. Great trading houses sprang 
 3 
 
 The first Merchants' Exchange, 
 situated on Wall Street 
 (From an engraving published in 1830) 
 
S i: V i: X T Y - r i v e Years of 
 
 up, having connections with retail merchants in all 
 parts of the country. In 183.5 a fire destroyed almost 
 the entire mercantile district, sweeping over an area 
 of fifty acres, but the merchants immediately rebuilt 
 
 Jiuiiifi of the MercJwnts' Ej-rlniniK uftrr the great fire of December 
 16th and nth, 1835 
 
 (From a contemporary print) 
 
 their ruined premises on a larger and more lavish scale 
 than before, relying largely on European credits and 
 liberal bank loans to do so. 
 
 At that period it was customary for w^estern and 
 southern traders to visit the eastern wholesale mer- 
 chants and manufacturers twice a year to make their 
 purchases in person. The terms of sale were very 
 simple. The buyer agreed to pay for the goods pur- 
 chased when he came again. In other words, the pre- 
 
 4 
 
The M e r c a X t I l e Agency 
 
 vailing system was six months' credit on all trans- 
 actions. If a firm had just started in business its 
 buying partner brought with him — on his first visit to 
 the eastern jobbers — letters of recommendation from 
 other merchants in his vicinity, these letters being 
 addressed to the houses from whicli the merchants 
 were themselves purchasing and to whom they were 
 well known. This was the system that had existed 
 
 The tieio Merchants' Exchange, '•the finest mercantile edifice 
 in America," as it appeared in IS^l 
 
 (From a contemporary engraving) 
 
 from colonial times, but as the country expanded it 
 showed an increasing tendency to break down. Means 
 of travel and communication were slow and uncer- 
 tain, and if the letter of introduction failed to convey 
 sufficient information upon which to extend credit 
 with safety weeks might elapse before it could be sup- 
 plemented. JNIeanwhile, of course, the buyer would 
 go elsew^here for his goods, and a valuable account 
 might be lost. jNIoreover, after once having estab- 
 lished trade relations on a credit basis, the jobber had 
 
 5 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 little or no means of judging whether the affairs of 
 his customer were prospering or the reverse. Periods 
 of depression occurred with great frequency in which 
 the eastern sellers lost heavily, owing to the inability 
 of western and southern buyers to meet their obliga- 
 tions. Some of these retail failures were caused by 
 crop shortages, others by money stringency, but the 
 greater proportion were due to the fact that credit 
 had been injudiciously extended to traders who were 
 not entitled to it. A most striking instance of the ex- 
 tremely high rate of mercantile mortality resulting 
 from this unsound method of granting credits is given 
 by Lewis Tappan, the founder of The Mercantile 
 Agency, in an Appendix to his Life of Arthur Tap- 
 pan: 
 
 In 1832 a clergyman came to New York to solicit 
 funds for a college in Missouri. A loan of $10^000 was 
 finally obtained on the following terms: (1) That the 
 trustees of the college should mortgage to the lender, as 
 security for their bond, the land to be purchased from 
 the United States; (2) that forty merchants in New 
 York, who had expressed a willingness to loan their 
 names to the amount of $500 each, should unite in a 
 guaranty; (3) that five of the number give a bond in- 
 dorsing the responsibility of the forty; (4) that the 
 friend who negotiated the loan on behalf of the institu- 
 tion should give his obligation to hold the lender harm- 
 less at all events, or, in other words, to repay the sum 
 advanced if the others did not. At the end of ten years, 
 when the loan became due, the trustees were unable to 
 repay it. No. 4 was then applied to, but did not have 
 the means to meet the obligation. Of the five merchants 
 in No. 3 four had become insolvent. The only solvent 
 one among them tlien endeavored to collect their respec- 
 tive quotas from the forty merchants in No. 2, but found 
 that a large portion of these had also failed, so that 
 
 6 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 he was compelled to settle with the lender himself. 
 When the loan was made^ those in the No. 2 list were 
 all in prosperous circumstances, and each of the No. 3 
 list was rich. Yet, such were the uncertainties of trade 
 under the credit system which then prevailed, that in 
 less than ten years nearly all of these merchants had 
 become bankrupts. 
 
 The prevailing system of long-term credits, based 
 upon very insufficient information as to the buyer's 
 responsibihty in most instances, was one of the chief 
 causes of the great panic of 1837, and contributed 
 
 The Park and City Hall, New York, as they appeared in IS41, 
 tchen The Mercantile Agency was established 
 
 (From an engraving published in 1838) 
 
 especially to the extraordinarily high number of fail- 
 ures that occurred among strictly mercantile houses 
 during that crisis and the periods of severe depression 
 that succeeded it in 1839 and 1840. Other causes of 
 the disaster of 1837 were speculation in Government 
 lands, inflation of bank loans, unsound currency, over- 
 
 7 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 expansion of trade, and serious eroj) failures — a group 
 of adverse factors sufficiently formidable to wreck 
 almost any country. Xew highways, railroads and 
 canals had opened up immense areas of previously 
 inaccessible lands that were sold by the Government 
 on easy terms — $1.25 ^^er acre, payable in any kind 
 of currency. As the market value of these lands 
 quickly rose above the Government's prices, an era 
 of land speculation set in that greatly overdiscounted 
 the immediate future. Local banks loaned freely on 
 newly i^urchased and unimproved Government lands, 
 and new banks were established to meet this tempo- 
 rary demand. In 1829 the number of banks in the 
 country was 329, and the total loans aggregated $137,- 
 000,000. In 1837 the number of banks was 788 and 
 the aggregate of loans $525,100,000. Much of this 
 inflation in loans was based on unimproved lands in 
 the hands of speculators. 
 
 The money in circulation at this period consisted 
 ahiiost entirely of paper, with very little gold or sil- 
 ver behind it. The bank notes of many of the States 
 were not current in other States. Counterfeits w^ere 
 numerous, and "Counterfeit Bank Xote Detectors" 
 were in almost universal use among merchants and 
 others receiving paper money. "No one was safe 
 without them — nor especially safe with them," accord- 
 ing to a merchant of that j^eriod. A currency so 
 essentially unsound became a menace whenever busi- 
 ness conditions were disturbed. 
 
 8 
 
The JNIercantile Agency 
 
 As stated, causes of disturbance were not lack- 
 ing in 1837. The mania for speculation was not con- 
 fined to western lands. Prices of cotton plantations, 
 
 Wall Street as it appeared in 18^9, a few years after The Mercantile 
 Agency was established. The 'building at the 
 right is still standing 
 
 especially in Mississippi and Louisiana, rose sharply, 
 as did prices of real estate in southern cities. At 
 Mobile, for example, the assessed value of real estate 
 
 9 
 
S E V E N T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 rose from $1,2.50,000 in 1834 to $27,000,000 in 1837. 
 Prices of cotton were soaring. The famous Specie 
 Circular issued by the United States Treasury De- 
 partment in 1830 pricked the western land bubble 
 by requiring' that agents for the sale of public lands 
 should accej^t only specie and refuse bank notes of 
 all kinds. At the same time a number of failures in 
 Great Britain compelled houses there to call their 
 American loans, which caused a heavy fall in cotton 
 and crippled the South. The crop failures of 1835 
 and 1837 affected the merchants adversely in the 
 farming sections of the North and West. At this 
 moment, when the business community was confronted 
 by the most serious crisis in the history of the coun- 
 try, the Treasury Department called upon the banks 
 holding national funds for $9,000,000 as a first pay- 
 ment of the surplus to be distributed among the States. 
 ''Millions of dollars w^ent on their travels North and 
 South, East and West, being mere freight for the 
 time being, while the business from which the money 
 was withdrawn gasped for breath in its struggle with 
 a fearfully stringent money market."* This was in 
 January, 1837. On April 1st a second installment 
 was called for, but the sorely pressed banks were not 
 equal to the strain. 
 
 On May 10th the banks of New York City sus- 
 pended specie payments, followed the next day by 
 the banks in many other cities. As was to be expected, 
 security prices fell during the first months of the year 
 
 * Carl Schurz, Life of Henry Clay. 
 
 10 
 
The M ercantile Agency 
 
 to less than half, in many instances, of the prices of 
 the year before. Real estate prices at New York 
 declined even more sharply. Lots at Bloomingdale 
 (near 100th Street), which cost $480 each the pre- 
 vious September, were sold at $50. Real estate 
 throughout the city depreciated more than $40,000,000 
 in six months. In two months there were over 250 
 failures, while the value of merchandise stocks on 
 
 Wall Street from the corner of Broad Street. From a print published 
 about the time that this section began to he knoxon 
 OS the financial district 
 
 hand in warehouses and stores declined 30 per cent. 
 The situation throughout the country was the same. 
 All banks suspended specie payments, and the total 
 number of failures among mercantile houses has 
 never been reported. In proportion to the number 
 of firms in business it was probably the largest in 
 the history of the country. 
 
 11 
 
S E A' E X T Y - F I V E Y E A K S O F 
 
 Amonty the more notable failures was that of 
 Arthur Tappau k Co., wholesale and retail silk deal- 
 ers, whose establishment on Pearl Street at Hanover 
 Square (then the heart of the fashionable shopping 
 district), was one of the largest in the country, with 
 sales amounting to over a million dollars per annum. 
 With Arthur Tappan was associated his brother 
 Lewis, who had charge of the credits of the firm. At 
 the outset the partners proposed to sell only for cash, 
 but "the general practice of merchants at that day, 
 the earnest solicitations of customers, the temptations 
 to sell at greater profits, and the apparent success of 
 the credit system, influenced the firm to depart, by 
 degrees, from the rule that had been established until 
 its principal sales were made on credit."* 
 
 Few houses, even in those days, had stricter rules 
 for their employees than those laid down by Arthur 
 Tappan & Co. They were required : ( 1 ) To be strictly 
 temperate; (2) to avoid fast habits and bad compan- 
 ions; (3) to keep away from theaters; (4) to attend 
 Divine service twice on the Sabbath Day; (5) to re- 
 port at the store every Monday morning what church 
 they had attended, the name of the clergyman and the 
 text; (6) to attend prayer-meetings twice a week, 
 and (7) never to be out after 10 o'clock P. M.f 
 
 In determining credits the brothers were equally 
 exacting. Each applicant was questioned individu- 
 ally, usually by Lewis, and no detail reported was 
 ever forgotten — both brothers being noted for their 
 
 * Life of Arthur Tappan. 
 
 t The Old Merchants of New York City. 
 
 12 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 very retentive memories. In this manner the firm 
 gradually accumulated a large amount of information 
 regarding buyers in all parts of the country. As an 
 instance of the high esteem with which their fellow 
 merchants regarded the Tappans as credit authori- 
 ties, A. T. Stewart, in the early stages of his career — 
 when doubts were expressed as to whether he was 
 going beyond his resources — named Lewis Tappan 
 "as a fit and proper person, both from integrity and 
 business shrewdness, to look into his accounts and 
 make an impartial report of his pecuniary condition, 
 so as to set all doubts at rest." During the early 
 thirties, as the extent and reliability of the informa- 
 tion they had accumulated for their own use became 
 generally known, Arthur Tappan & Co. were fre- 
 quently consulted by fellow merchants on the sub- 
 ject of credits, and gave their advice freely whenever 
 requested to do so. 
 
 The immediate cause of the Tappan failure was 
 the fact that the firm was carrying a very heavy stock 
 of goods at a time of great financial embarrassment. 
 "The expansion of trade much beyond the actual 
 wants of the country, the extensive credits given by 
 merchants, the failure of southern traders to fulfill 
 their engagements, added to the severe losses by fire, 
 and other causes, were rapidly bringing on general 
 bankruptcy," wrote Lewis Tappan in his account of 
 the failure. The firm suspended in May, 1837, its 
 liabilities amounting to $1,100,000. The creditors 
 were given notes for six, twelve and eighteen months 
 
 13 
 
S E A' E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S O E 
 
 in lieu of their claims. These were paid promptly as 
 they came due, hut husiness conditions continuin(>' to 
 be unsatisfactory, Lewis soon afterw^ard retired from 
 the firm, followed by Arthur in 1840, the business 
 passing to other hands. 
 
 The panic of 1837 has been described in some 
 detail because it not only led directly to the estab- 
 lishment of Tlie ^Mercantile Agency, but was largely 
 responsible for its early success. The failure of 
 A. Tappan & Co. left Lewis, its credit manager, free 
 to engage in some new^ occupation. His wide ex- 
 perience in appraising the credit resj^onsibility of 
 traders, and the high regard in which his oj^inions on 
 credits were held by other wholesale merchants, sug- 
 gested the idea of organizing a credit reporting bu- 
 reau devoted to collecting and disseminating such 
 information for the benefit of the mercantile com- 
 munity as a whole. The great lesson of the panic, 
 as he saw it — after studying closely its causes and 
 effects — was that the system of mercantile credits 
 that had prevailed until then was essentially un- 
 sound because it failed to take sufficiently into ac- 
 count the standing of the applicant for credit, based 
 upon information obtained from intelligent and re- 
 liable sources. Likewise, the panic, with its over- 
 throw of merchants and traders of every grade of 
 credit reputation from the lowest to the highest, had 
 convinced business men generally that there was 
 something wrong with a system that could result in 
 so universal a collapse. They were, therefore, quick 
 
 14 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 to perceive the need of an institution for safeguard- 
 ing credits by enabling the seller to inform himself 
 more exactly regarding the character and standing of 
 each applicant. 
 
 - > 
 
 LEWIS TAPPAN 
 The founder of The Mercantile Agency 
 (From an engraving in America's Advancement, published in 1875) 
 
 Encouraged by the result of the inquiries he had 
 made among his fellow merchants as to the favor with 
 which they would regard his novel enterprise, Lewis 
 Tappan determined to establish what he called "The 
 
 15 
 
S E A' K X T Y - 1 I V E Y E A 11 S OF 
 
 jNIercantile Agency" in tlie year 184(1. On June 1st 
 of that year he sent an announcement of his project 
 to all of the leading merchants of Xew York City, 
 and especially to tliose engaged in the wholesale trade 
 with merchants in other parts of the country — "in the 
 country trade," as 2>eople called it in those days. In 
 this announcement INIr. Tappan set August 1st as 
 the date for heginning active operations, and on that 
 day the new institution — the first of its kind in the 
 world — opened its doors for the transaction of busi- 
 ness under the name of The JNIercantile Agency, which 
 it has ever since retained. The first place of business 
 was at the corner of Hanover Street and Exchange 
 Place, close to the store of A. Tappan & Co. (the suc- 
 cessors of Arthur and Lewis Tappan). 
 
 The months of June and July were evidently 
 spent in securing subscribers to the new Agency. 
 The original subscription book used by Lewis Tap- 
 pan is still in existence. It is a little pocket memo- 
 randum book, six inches high by about four wide, 
 covered with imitation leather. On the first page 
 Mr. Taj^pan wrote the terms of the first Agency con- 
 tract, which were as follows: 
 
 We the subscribers, individuals and firms, trad- 
 ing and selling merchandise in the City of New York, 
 being acquainted with the objects of The Mercantile 
 Agency as set forth in a published Circular signed by 
 Lewis Tappan, approving thereof and being desirous 
 to avail ourselves of its advantages, do hereby sev- 
 erally agree to pay to the said Lewis Tappan, for the 
 information which he may be able to furnish us from 
 time to time at the office of said Agency for one year 
 from the first day of August, 1 84 1 , and until we shall 
 
 16 
 
The M ercaxtile Agency 
 
 inform said Tappan in writing of our wish to discon- 
 tinue our subscriptions — three months notice there- 
 of to be given — the sums of money which shall be 
 payable by us respectively in advance according to 
 the following terms, to wit: 
 
 Those of us whose sales of goods for one year 
 amount to One Hundred Thousand dollars or less will 
 severally and respectively pay One Hundred dollars. 
 
 Those whose sales are over $100,000 and less 
 than $200,000, One Hundred and fifty dollars. 
 
 Those whose sales are over $200,000 and less 
 than $350,000, Two Hundred dollars. 
 
 Those whose sales are over $350,000 and less 
 than $500,000, Two Hundred and fifty dollars. 
 
 And all whose sales are over $500,000, Three 
 Hundred dollars. 
 
 And the subscribers do further agree and prom- 
 ise to send all their claims that are or shall be past 
 due, and for the collection or settlement of which they 
 need the agency of another person, to the correspond- 
 ents of said Tappan, it being understood that said 
 correspondents shall do the business as promptly 
 and faithfully as other attorneys and agents, and 
 that their charges and commissions shall be at the 
 customary rates. 
 
 July 31, 1841. 
 
 After so prolonged a period of uncertainty and 
 disaster — for the panic of 1837 was followed by simi- 
 lar, though less intense periods of depression in 1839 
 and 1840 — merchants were ready to welcome any 
 plan that gave promise of increased safety, and the 
 solicitors of the new organization met with the most 
 flattering success. When the new Agency was opened 
 for business, Mr. Tappan's first step was to issue a 
 circular to lawj^ers and others inviting them to be- 
 come his correspondents. In this way he hoped to be 
 able to secure, in advance, sufficient data regarding 
 the standing of traders to enable merchants to whom 
 they might subsequently apply for credit to deter- 
 
 17 
 
E y E N T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 The first page of signatures to the original subscription 
 hook of The Mercantile Agency, dated 
 July Slet, 18J4 
 
 18 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 mine what amount of credit, if any, could safely be 
 accorded to them. His own experience, as dispenser 
 of credits for Arthur Tappan & Co., had taught him 
 that after the buyer arrived and presented his letters 
 of introduction and recommendation, the seller was 
 in possession of only a part of the information he 
 required in order to arrive at a safe decision. Obvi- 
 
 Exchange Place^ looking toward Hanover Street. The first office 
 of The Mercantile Agency was at the corner of Exchange Place 
 and Hanover Street; the second at No. 9 Exchange Place 
 
 ously, no man w^ould refer him to those who knew 
 any ill of him, while letters of introduction might be 
 furnished by those who gave them merely to avoid 
 the unpleasant necessity of explaining to the credit 
 applicant in person why they refused' to do so. The 
 responses to the preliminary circular proved satisfac- 
 
 19 
 
S E A' E X T Y - F I y E Y E A 11 S O F 
 
 tory, and The jNIercantile Agency rapidly accumu- 
 lated a valuable mass of rej^orts. These were written 
 in longhand — the invention of the typewriter w^as 
 still many years in the future — in huge ledgers bound 
 in sheepskin. The present j^i'oprietors of The IVIer- 
 cantile Agency, R. G. Dux & Co., still have these 
 primitive report books of the forties and fifties 
 among their archives. It would indeed be difficult to 
 surpass the beauty of the handwriting in many of 
 these reports in this modern stenographic and type- 
 writer age. 
 
 Almost from the very outset, it became increas- 
 ingly apparent that the service of the new institution 
 would be greatly improved, and the number of sub- 
 scribers correspondingly increased, if branch offices 
 were opened in the principal cities. Accordingly, in 
 February, 1843, Mr. Tappan proposed to Edward 
 E. Dunbar, a Boston business man, that he open a 
 branch of The Mercantile Agency in that city, which 
 was done almost immediately under the firm style of 
 Edward E. Dunbar & Co., Mr. Tappan and Mr. 
 Dunbar each taking a half interest. Speaking a 
 little later of his early experiences in opening the 
 office, Mr. Dunbar wrote: 
 
 The enterprise was entirely new to Boston mer- 
 chants. Some were aware that a concern of this kind 
 had been established in New York, but they were almost 
 wholly unacquainted with its practical operation and 
 uses. I liad neither the countenance of my friends nor 
 the confidence of merchants in my novel, or, as many 
 regarded it, mysterious undertaking. It was a long 
 
 20 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 time before they could be brought to see that my object 
 was simply to collect useful information respecting 
 trade and traders all over the country^ by means of 
 special agents and an organized correspondence of law- 
 yers, for the benefit of mercliants in the city who sold 
 goods to persons in the country ; and to afford facilities 
 for the collection of debts by keeping a registry of 
 prompt and faithful attorneys throughout the United 
 States who would obtain information and correspond 
 with the Agency. 
 
 For several months Mr. Dunbar labored ardu- 
 ously, but made little apparent progress. He then 
 received the following letter from Mr. Tappan: 
 
 I am beginning to think seriously whether it is not 
 for my interest to invite you to give up the branch at 
 Boston and unite with me here. Were you here this 
 fall, or, rather, had you been here the first of August, 
 I could have secured a large number of new subscribers 
 and have greatly strengthened my system. 
 
 To this Mr. Dunbar replied, on September 5th, 
 1843, in part, as follows: 
 
 First, respecting the Agency here. That we will 
 ultimately succeed I feel confident, ... I take the 
 broad ground that the institution is founded on good 
 principles and that its operation and effect are of im- 
 mense benefit to the community, and it is only neces- 
 sary for the community to see this in order to support 
 it. It requires a longer time to operate on public opin- 
 ion in Boston than in New York. I have broken ground 
 here and certainly accomplished much in doing away 
 with the prejudice, and inducing the community to view 
 the system impartially. The trade of the West is turn- 
 ing this way in such a manner that by and by the 
 necessity of such an institution cannot but be apparent 
 to the merchants. Time, labor and money have been 
 expended — the foundation is laid. The system is or- 
 ganized and oft'ered to merchants for their examination 
 and use. . . . Had I now a direct pecuniary interest 
 
 21 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 in the New York office I tliink I should be willing to 
 incur some expense in maintaining the Agency here, 
 for the following reasons, viz.: 
 
 First. The great influence that is brought to bear 
 in favor of the New York office, as my arrangements 
 ■with correspondents have been effected, to a great 
 extent, on account of my connection with that office. 
 
 Second. ]\Iuch valuable information is obtained 
 by the Agency here that is adapted to New York, 
 which the office tJiere must in any case obtain. 
 
 The Boston Office, established l8Jf.3 
 T}iis office has for many years been located at Xo. 3 Winthrop 
 i:<quarc, irhere it occupies the entire second floor 
 
 Third. Should the Agency here be given up, per- 
 haps someone else -would establish one, and take the 
 benefit of my labors. 
 
 Fourth. Should this Agency be suddenly brought 
 to an end, it would have a bad effect on the New York 
 office. 
 
 These cogent arguments evidently convinced 
 Mr. Tappan of the importance of continuing the 
 Boston office, and in the spring of 1844 the business 
 
 22 
 
The Mercantile Agexcy 
 
 of the new branch began to increase. On March 1st, 
 Mr. Dunbar purchased ]Mr. Tappan's interest in the 
 Boston office, and by July 1st, the income of the 
 branch exceeded exjjenses. On this date Mr. Dun- 
 bar sold half of his interest in the Boston office and, at 
 the request of Mr. Tappan, went to New York, 
 where he purchased a fourth interest in the head 
 
 r 
 I 
 
 A corner of the Boston Office 
 In every office the cases in which the Agency's records are kept 
 form a prominent feature 
 
 office for $7,500, the establishment then being valued 
 at $30,000. The firm name remained, as before, 
 Lewis Tappan & Co. 
 
 In October, 184J^, Charles Barlow entered the 
 employ of The ^Mercantile Agency, as copyist and 
 correspondence clerk. ]Mr. Barlow was born in Dud- 
 ley, England, in 1820; and came to the United States 
 
 23 
 
!i! n 'r 
 
 iir ' 
 
 M H If 
 
 S E V K X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 at the age of twenty, first obtaining employment with 
 A. T. Stewart. He remained in the service of the 
 Agency until his death, in 1880, at which time he was 
 one of the partners of the firm. 
 
 The next branch office to be established was that 
 at Philadelphia, which was opened July 2nd, 1845, 
 under the firm style of William Goodrich & Co. The 
 23artners were Wil- _ _ ^ _ 
 liam Goodrich, a 
 highly trusted em- 
 ployee of Lewis 
 Tappan & Co., and 
 Edward E. Dunbar. 
 It was agreed that 
 Mr. Tappan should 
 receive a certain sum 
 out of the profits in 
 return for relinquish- 
 ing the partnership 
 and affording the 
 new branch access to 
 all the information 
 received at New 
 York. Within six months the success of the new 
 office was assured, while New York and Boston were 
 supplied with full and thorough reports from a large 
 section of the country that had previously been inade- 
 quately reported, and the number of correspondents 
 throughout the region greatly increased. During the 
 fall of 1845, Messrs. Goodrich and Dunbar urged the 
 
 NIIBtl 11 I 
 
 """nil I w- 
 
 riiiladdpJiia Office, cstablislial lS',r> 
 Occupying all of the 13th and most of the 
 12th floors of the Lincoln Building 
 
 24 
 
T HE M E K C A X T I L E A G E X C Y 
 
 importance of opening a new office at Baltimore, as 
 the South was then the great market for manufac- 
 tures and imports of all kinds, and it was there that 
 reliable credit reports were most urgently needed. 
 The West was then of relatively little commercial 
 importance, Chicago 
 having a population 
 of only 4,470, while 
 St. Louis was a 
 bustling little frontier 
 river port and fur- 
 trade center with 16,- 
 469 inhabitants. Ac- 
 cordingly, early in 
 1846, an office was 
 opened at Baltimore 
 in charge of Jabez D. 
 Pratt, the firm style 
 being J. D. Pratt & 
 Co. The new office 
 had the entire South 
 for its district, and 
 therefore soon became one of the most important links 
 in the Agency's chain. 
 
 In 1843, when the first branch office was opened 
 at Boston the number of correspondents of the 
 Agency was about 180, the list covering part of Xew 
 England and the States of New York, Xew Jer- 
 sey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, 
 Iowa and Wisconsin. By 1846 the number of corre- 
 
 25 
 
S E y E X T Y - F I y E Years o f 
 
 spondents of tlie Xew York office was 352, of the Bos- 
 ton office 11,5, and the Phihidelphia office 212 — or 679 
 altogether, not includin(>' those of the new Baltimore 
 office which had just been organized. The jMercan- 
 tile Agency was then fiye years old, its business was 
 firmly established and all of its branches were pros- 
 pering. As important changes in its management 
 took place during the year 1846 that date may fairly 
 be taken as indicating the end of the period of incep- 
 tion, when the plans and policies of the youthful and 
 noyel institution were necessarily more or less forma- 
 tiye, and the beginning of the period during which 
 the fundamental characteristics of The jNIercantile 
 Agency of to-day were clearly determined. 
 
 26 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 The Development of the Mercantile Agency 
 
 Idea 
 
 1846-1854 
 
 Early in the year 1846 increasing differences 
 of opinion between Mr. Taj^j^-'ii^ ^^^^ ^ii'- Dunbar 
 as to the manner in which the business of The ]Mer- 
 cantile Agency should b^ conducted resulted in a 
 dissolution of the partnership, ]Mr. Tappan purchas- 
 ing INIr. Dunbar's interest in the Xew York office, 
 and the late junior partner agreeing "not to engage 
 in the mercantile agency or any similar business prior 
 to July 1st, 1849." On December 31st, :Mr. Dunbar 
 went to California, selling his interest in the Phila- 
 delphia office to ]VIr. Goodrich, and that in the Bos- 
 ton office to George William Gordon, who had pre- 
 viously been Postmaster at Boston and Consul Gen- 
 eral at Rio de Janeiro. ]Mr. Dunbar's retirement 
 from the business left Mr. Tappan in sole charge 
 of the management of the parent institution at 
 Xew York — a responsibility that his advancing age 
 and huge personal correspondence made very irk- 
 some to him. 
 
 About June, 1846, IVIr. Tappan made the ac- 
 quaintance of Benjamin Douglass, the eldest son of 
 George Douglass, who for many years had been a 
 
 27 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 successful West India merchant at Baltimore, ]Md., 
 and later at Xew York. After being associated in 
 business with his father for a number of years, Benja- 
 min Douglass went to Charleston, S. C, conduct- 
 ing an extensive mercantile business there for some 
 time, and then removed to Xew Orleans, where he 
 extended his trade to all parts of the Mississippi Val- 
 ley. It was his habit to investigate the credit stand- 
 ing of his customers in person, making extensive 
 trij^s for that purpose throughout the South and 
 Southwest, and even as far north as the State of Ohio. 
 Although only thirty years old at this time, ]Mr. Doug- 
 lass was, therefore, very familiar with the business 
 methods in the "country trade," and with the loose 
 system of granting credits to country buyers that was 
 then customary. This experience enabled him 
 to appreciate clearly the importance and value 
 of the mercantile agency idea. 
 
 Perceiving that the unusually wide family and 
 business connections of ]Mr. Douglass would be of 
 inestimable service in securing for The ^lercantile 
 Agency the support of the South, Mr. Taj^pan offered 
 the young man a position in his establishment as 
 confidential clerk and secretary. ]Mr. Douglass had 
 hardly been in the office two weeks before he pro- 
 posed to ^Ir. Tappan that he be allowed to take 
 charge of all correspondence relating to the Agency, 
 thus leaving his employer free to devote his time to 
 his private correspondence. This proposition the 
 elder man accepted gladly, and the new associate be- 
 
 28 
 
The JNIercaxtile Agency 
 
 came at once head clerk and the virtual manager of 
 the business, which — as a result of his diligence and 
 skill — quickly began to improve. In 1847 Mr. Doug- 
 
 From a painting in the possession of R. G. Dux & Co. 
 
 BEXJAMIN DOUGLASS 
 Part oicticr of The Mercantile Agencij from 18^7 to ISo^, and sole 
 proprietor from 185^ to ISoii 
 
 lass acquired a third interest in the Agency, ]Mr. Tap- 
 pan retaining the other two-thirds. Benjamin Doug- 
 
 29 
 
S E y E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 lass was a man of connnanding personality, of iron 
 will and inflexible loyalty to principle, and under his 
 direction The JNIercantile Agency began to develop 
 along broader and stronger lines. 
 
 The first result of the new spirit injected into 
 the management of the business was a marked 
 strengthening of the firm's system of correspondents 
 in the South. Mr. Douglass earnestly advocated the 
 opening of new offices in the South and West, clearly 
 perceiving that the success of the business must ulti- 
 mately depend upon the extent and thoroughness of 
 its facilities for ascertaining the standing of mer- 
 chants and traders in all sections of the country. 
 AVhile no new offices were opened in 1847 and 1848 
 the list of correspondents was greatly extended. 
 The Philadelphia office reached out as far westward 
 as Pittsburgh, while the service of the Baltimore 
 branch covered the entire South to Xew Orleans. 
 Mr. James H. Taylor, an employee of the Philadel- 
 phia office from 1847 until 1911 — a period of sixty- 
 four years — in an interesting account of the early his- 
 tory of the Agency in that city wrote: 
 
 Every morning we received a package of letters 
 from New York City and from Baltimore, Md., by the 
 Adams Express^ containing reports in our district or 
 that we were interested in, for us to cop}^ and return^, 
 while we daily sent a package of reports that we had 
 received and written up to these offices. ... As I was 
 noted for having a tenacious memory^ Mr. Goodrich 
 would send me to various leading firms, instructing me 
 to ask them what they knew about the parties inquired 
 for, giving me orders to listen attentively to what they 
 
 30 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 said and remember tlie conversation^ bring it back and 
 write it up, wliicli I did, and that was the basis of our 
 city reporting. 
 
 On June 1st, 1849, Lewis Tappan retired from 
 The Mercantile Agency, which up to that time had 
 been known as Lewis Tappan & Co. He was suc- 
 ceeded by his brother, Arthur Tappan, and Benja- 
 min Douglass, each of whom purchased a half inter- 
 est in the business. As Lewis Tappan never again 
 took an active part in the great institution he 
 
 Aciy York (ntii ahout 1855 
 Showing the shippirifj in the k<ist /' i re r— sailing vessels still pre- 
 dominating — and the low sA// Una of Manhattan Island 
 
 founded, it is fitting at this point to review briefly his 
 work in the early years of its inception and organi- 
 zation. That he was the originator and founder of 
 the first organized system of credit reporting in the 
 world has never been disputed. This fact is strongly 
 emphasized by the author of the sketch of Lewis Tap- 
 
 31 
 
S E A ' E X T Y - F I E Y E A 11 S O F 
 
 })aii in Amcricd's Advancement , published in 187,5, a 
 portion of which follows: 
 
 We liave introduced the name and portrait of Mr. 
 Ta})pan into this work because he is identified with a 
 very important movement in the mercantile world, which 
 may almost be said to liave revolutionized the method of 
 conducting business, especially as regards dispensing- 
 credits. We refer to The jNIercantile Agency and the 
 system pursued under tliat name. He was, during his 
 lifetime, it is true, identified with many other very im- 
 portant movements, and was very actively instrumental 
 in carrying them forward. . . . But of the mercantile 
 agency system, he may fairly be called the originator, 
 or father, 
 
 Mr. Tappan impressed u])on The INIercantile Agency 
 liis peculiar cliaracteristics almost as clearly as John 
 Wesley did his upon Methodism; and, although various 
 adaptations and modifications have been necessary to 
 meet the exigencies of business, these peculiarities are 
 still clearly discernible. He had many enemies and 
 many admirers during his lifetime, as men of strong 
 will and purpose are apt to have; but no one ever 
 doubted his perfect honesty and fair-mindedness, and 
 his desire to give to every man his just due. 
 
 We have said that Mr. Tappan was the originator 
 and father of the mercantile agency system. W^e be- 
 lieve we are justified in using these terms. Some crude 
 attempts had been made, it is true, at something whicli 
 was intended to supply what the Agency supplies, before 
 his time; but they had never been brought to any practi- 
 cal results ; and, indeed, may be said to have been aban- 
 doned when Mr. Tappan entered the field. The idea 
 suggested itself to him from a long experience of his 
 own in business, and a knowledge of tlie difficulty, whicli 
 all dispensers of credit experienced at that time, in 
 obtaining anything like tangible information on wliicli 
 to operate. While in the house of Arthur Tappan & 
 Co. — then the leading dry-goods firm in New York — 
 and engaged in dispensing its credits, he had little to 
 go upon except such information as could be gained 
 from otlier houses to whicli lie was referred by the par- 
 
 32 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 ties themselves, or from open letters of introduction or 
 recommendation which the applicants brought with them 
 from some influential source at liome^, and wliich were 
 supplied generally at their own request. . . . The fact 
 is, that credits given under this system very nearly re- 
 sembled wliat Sir Astley Cooper said of surgical ojDera- 
 tions before his time^, viz., that "they were a series of 
 doubtful experiments." We seriously question whether 
 a system which so completely revolutionized all ideas 
 of business usages and traditions could have been suc- 
 cessfully carried out under any other person. At least, 
 we are quite sure that there are very few persons who 
 could have done it. Mr. Tappan, in the first place^ was 
 a man well known in the community. His business abil- 
 ity was almost universally recognized. ... In short, 
 his acknowledged business shrewdness, his incorrupt- 
 ible integrity, and the fact that his own experience as a 
 dispenser of credits had prompted him to attempt some- 
 thing that sliould obviate the perplexities he had himself 
 felt, were all strong arguments in favor of a movement 
 in the direction proposed by The Mercantile Agency, 
 and it is difficult to imagine any other person in whom 
 all these considerations were combined in the same 
 degree. . . . 
 
 ]Mr. Tappan lived long enough to see the tree that 
 he planted grown to proportions and yielding fruit far 
 beyond what he himself probably anticipated ; and we 
 doubt whether among all the movements and enterprises 
 with which he was identified, he will find as lasting a 
 memorial, or as distinct a recognition, as in The Mer- 
 cantile Agency, destined, probably, to live as long as 
 commerce or civilization, and to carry with it the name 
 of its founder, as one of the far-seeing and original 
 minds wliich have impressed themselves upon the his- 
 tory, development and prosperity of their country. 
 
 No finer or juster tribute to the genius of the 
 founder of The Mercantile Agency has ever been 
 written tlian this, and the forty years that have since 
 elapsed only serve still further to emphasize its truth. 
 
 33 
 
S E A' E N T Y - F I y E Y E A R S O F 
 
 Lewis Tappan lived until 1873, his last work being 
 the preparation of a life of his brother Arthur, whieh 
 was published in 1870. In 1827 he founded the New 
 York Journal of Com mcrcc, which has been published 
 continuously ever since. 
 
 The style of the 
 firm on the retirement 
 of Lewis Tappan was 
 changed to Tappan & 
 pouglass, A r t h u r 
 Tappan becoming the 
 senior partner under 
 an agree m e n t by 
 which he contracted 
 to leave the business 
 in the sole jDrop'rietor- 
 ship of his associate at 
 the end of five years. 
 To the men in the ser- 
 vice of the Agency, 
 ]Mr. Douglass was 
 looked upon as the 
 guiding spirit of the 
 institution and his in- 
 fluence and strong 
 personality now began to modify its poHcies materially. 
 Arthur Tappan was sixty-three years old, and it 
 was the younger partner who traveled to all parts 
 of the country to extend and strengthen the service 
 of the Agency, and who fought its battles. In 1849, 
 
 Cincinnati Office, established 1S.',9 
 21ie present office is located in the First 
 Xational Bank Building 
 
 34 
 
The jNI e r c a X t I l e A g e x c y 
 
 ]Mr. Douglass opened a branch of The ^Mercantile 
 Agency at Cincinnati, which was then the great me- 
 tropolis of the western trade, with a population of 
 115,43,5. The office was operated by William B. 
 Pierce and Samuel Richardson, under the firm style 
 of Wm. B. Pierce & Co. The new venture was so 
 
 Louimillc Otftcc, cstabUshetl iSoO 
 Main room of the present office in the Board of Trade Buildinfj. 
 There are five other rooms occupied hy the Agency 
 
 successful that the following year Wm. B. Pierce & 
 Co. opened an office at Louisville, the sixth in the 
 Agency's chain. While, during this period, the plan 
 of giving the new offices separate firm styles inaugu- 
 rated by Lewis Tappan was continued, ]Mr. Doug- 
 lass made it clear that e\'ery office must be subordi- 
 
Seven t y - r i v i: Years of 
 
 iiate to that at Xew York, where the j^oHcies of the 
 institution were decided. 
 
 In 18.50 an office was opened at St. Louis. At 
 that time the trading station of ten years before had 
 expanded into a roaring hive of frontier industry 
 and commerce. Long hues of steamers clung to the 
 levee along the river front and tlie merchandise re- 
 ceived and distributed 
 bore the names of 
 traders throughout the 
 vast region drained by 
 the Mississippi and its 
 tributaries — an em- 
 pire for one INIercan- 
 tile Agency district. 
 The new office was 
 oj^ened b y Charles 
 Barlow, who remained 
 in charge until 18.54, 
 when the new brancli 
 was thoroughly estab- 
 lished and its success 
 assured. T h e firm 
 style at the outset was 
 Charles Barlow k Co. Among the first correspond- 
 ents of the St. Louis office was Abraham Lincoln, 
 then a successful attorney at Springfield, in the part 
 of Illinois falling within the St. Louis district. The 
 quaint humor that enlivened so many of the future 
 
 36 
 
 »Sf. Louis Office, < stdhlisJicd ISoO 
 The present office is located in Mechanics- 
 American Xational Bank Building 
 
The Mercaxtile Agexcy 
 
 President's public utterances was not absent from 
 his reports to The jNIercantile Agency. 
 
 The arcliives of the St. Louis office still contain 
 records showing many reports written by ]Mr. Lin- 
 coln on some of the oldest and largest concerns in 
 the State of Illinois during those early days. Xor 
 was he the only correspondent who subsequently 
 achieved fame in professional or public life. ]Many of 
 the offices have on their rolls of correspondents 
 
 A view of a portion of the St. Louis office, 
 ivhich occupies 12,500 square feet of floor space, and is entirelij 
 modern throughout 
 
 the names of judges in the highest courts of their 
 respective States and in the courts of the United 
 States; while scores of the corresi)ondents of the 
 various offices have since become Governors, mem- 
 bers of the LTnited States Senate and House of Rep- 
 resentatives, and of State Legislatures. This, in- 
 deed, was only natural, since the aim of the Agency 
 has always been to enlist the services and secure the 
 opinions of the most representative men in every 
 
 37 
 
Seven t y - f i v e Y e a k s of 
 
 coniniiinity — and these were naturally the ones most 
 likely to he selected hv their fellow citizens for politi- 
 cal advancement. It may he of interest to add, in 
 this connection, tliat ex-Presidents Arthur, Cleve- 
 land and ]McKinley were also associated with the 
 work of the Agency prior to their elevation to the 
 highest office in the gift of their countrymen. 
 
 At some time during the year 1851 a new em- 
 ployee entered the service of The ]MerOantile Agency 
 at Xew York who was destined to play a most promi- 
 nent part in its future development. This was Robert 
 Graham Dun, whose name the great institution now 
 bears. ]Mr. Dun was born at Chillicothe, Ohio, Au- 
 gust 7th, 1826, of Scotch parentage. His grand- 
 father was the Rev. James Dun, for twenty years a 
 minister of the Free Church of Scotland at Glasgow. 
 In 1815 his father, Robert Dun, w^ho had also been 
 educated for the ministry, emigrated to the United 
 States and settled at Chillicothe. The trips made 
 by ]Mr. Douglass to Ohio while he was a merchant at 
 Xew Orleans may have been the indirect cause of 
 Mr. Dun entering the service of the Agency, for at 
 that time he met INIiss Elizabeth Dun, a sister of 
 Robert G. Dun, whom he subsequently married. By 
 a remarkable coincidence JVIr. Douglass also had a 
 sister named Elizabeth, who married Mr. Dun. It 
 was, in all probability, this relationship by mar- 
 riage that directed the attention of INIr. Douglass to 
 the advantages of bringing the young Ohioan to Xew 
 York to assist him in the management of the busi- 
 
 38 
 
The ]Me RCA X tile Agexcy 
 
 ness. He was himself obliged to take long and fre- 
 quent tri2)s to distant offices, and there were a num- 
 ber of reasons why he wished to leave in his stead at 
 Xew York someone in whose integrity, good judg- 
 ment and personal loyalty he could absolutely rely. 
 The fact that the life-long friendship between the two 
 men was never for a moment interrujDted clearly 
 proves that he found these qualities combined in 
 his young brother-in-law to a remarkable degree. 
 One reason, in particular, why a loyal assistant was 
 needed at this time was the apj^roaching retirement 
 of jNIr. Tappan from the Agency. Certain of the 
 older employees of the Taj^pans, being aware of the 
 impending change, were taking steps to continue 
 their respective branches as independent concerns, 
 while JNIr. Douglass aimed to keep the organization 
 together. By his diligence in mastering the principles 
 of the mercantile agency business, and his watchful- 
 ness in safeguarding the interests entrusted to his care, 
 JNIr. Dun quickly won the complete confidence of 
 ISlr. Douglass, nor was he long in winning the es- 
 teem of the mercantile community at Xew York. 
 
 Early in 1851 Mr. Gordon, the head of the Bos- 
 ton office of The jVIercantile Agency, was again ap- 
 pointed Postmaster of that city, and accordingly 
 sold his interest in the business to Edward Russell. 
 The firm style at Boston was therefore changed to 
 Edward Russell & Co. — under which name that 
 branch of the business continued to be conducted for 
 ahnost half a century. 
 
 39 
 
S E V i: X T Y - r I Y E Y e a r s of 
 
 In June, 1851, The ]Mercantile Agency had 
 completed the first decade of its existence. The husi- 
 ness coniniunity in CYery city in whicli a hranch office 
 had heen oj^ened thus far had heen quick to recognize 
 the importance and Yalue of the new institution and 
 had giYcn it a generous measure of support. Fortu- 
 nately a contem23orary pictin-e of the actiYities of 
 the Agency at this period of its dcYelopment has 
 come down to us in the form of an article that ap- 
 peared in the January, 1851, numher of Hunt's Mer- 
 chants' Magazine and Commercial Beview, and bears 
 CYcry CYidence of haYing been written by Freeman 
 Hunt himself. The following extracts from this arti- 
 cle are of particular interest as showing how the first 
 Mercantile Agency in the world was regarded by the 
 public when it was ten years old. 
 
 THE MERCANTILE AGENCY 
 
 This institution, which lias now been many years in 
 operation, has grown to be so important to the mercan- 
 tile community that we feel it due to our subscribers to 
 notice it in our pages. . . . Our present remarks, while 
 they are intended to cover the system, have reference 
 more particularly to the oldest and most extensive of 
 these agencies, conducted by Messrs. Tappan & Doug- 
 lass, which we have personally inspected. 
 
 This is not only an extensive, influential, and, as we 
 believe, useful institution in New York, but is extended 
 by associate offices to Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 
 Cincinnati, St. Louis and Louisville ; and contemplates 
 a still further extension, so as to embrace all the im- 
 portant centers of trade in the United States. But, 
 though known and appreciated by a majority of the 
 merchants in the large cities, we are aware that a preju- 
 
 40 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 dice exists against it in some quarters. Our object is, if 
 possible, to remove that prejudice, by presenting tlie 
 matter to our readers in the light in which it now appears 
 to us. We say noiv, for we are free to acknowledge 
 that our own "first impressions" were unfavorable. On 
 a full examination of the subject, however, we are con- 
 vinced that those impressions were founded in ignorance 
 of the system. We have recently taken pains to inform 
 ourselves, and do not hesitate to say, that the Agency is 
 conducted on high and honorable principles, and is truly 
 and extensively useful, not only to the city merchants, 
 for whose immediate benefit it was devised and estab- 
 lished, but to all sound, upright, industrious traders 
 throughout the land. 
 
 In our review of this system, we shall briefly advert, 
 first to the object of the mercantile agencies, and then 
 to their operations. 
 
 And, first, as to their object. Immediately after the 
 terrible mercantile revolution in 1837, when our whole 
 system of internal commerce was prostrate, and nearly 
 all its operators bankrupt, this Agency was planned, and 
 put into operation, as a remedy for some of the diffi- 
 culties which had just been so heavily experienced. Its 
 design was to uphold, extend, and render safe and prof- 
 itable to all concerned, the great credit system, on which 
 our country had thriven, doing business to an immense 
 amount with all the world, and using the capital of the 
 world to do it with. 
 
 At the outset it was mainly intended as an aid to the 
 Jobber. His customers, scattered over many States, 
 were periodically visiting him for the purpose of renew- 
 ing their stocks of goods; generally canceling in whole, 
 or in part, previous obligations, while they contracted 
 new ones. The intelligent jobber would necessarily 
 need to be informed, on the opening of a new account, 
 respecting the then circumstances of his customer. From 
 year to year he would desire to be freshly advised of 
 the good or ill success attending him. 
 
 To carry out tlie credit system, intelligently and 
 safely, the creditor must be well acquainted with the 
 debtor's financial condition and general standing. Con- 
 fidence is the life of the system, and confidence can rest 
 
 41 
 
S E y E N T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 only in knowledu'e. Before tlie establislnnent of this 
 Agency our merchants were in the habit of gettinii; sncli 
 information of tlieir customers as they could, by corre- 
 spondence or otherwise. Some of tlie larger houses, 
 whose business would justify the expense, employed 
 traveling agents. These they kept constantly out, in 
 different parts of the country, looking after and report- 
 ing their debtors, and collecting debts. The smaller 
 houses were, of course, deficient in the knowledge so 
 necessary to their success in business, while the larger 
 ones purchased their information at too high a cost. 
 The Agency obviates these difficulties. By an extensive 
 and well-sustained system of correspondents, extending 
 to every part of the United States and Canada, it ob- 
 tains the requisite information respecting every trader 
 in the country whose business leads liim to contract 
 debts away from home. This information is copied in 
 books prepared for the purpose, and held for the use of 
 such merchants as pay for it, and want it. It is not made 
 public. It is not communicated, even to subscribers, 
 except when a trader, by soliciting credit, renders in- 
 quiry into his circumstances necessary. It is made 
 known only to those wath whom he proposes to trade. 
 If he does not ask a credit at all, it remains on the 
 record, unread and unseen, from year to year. 
 
 It appears, then, that the object of the system is sim- 
 ply to furnish the merchant subscriber Avith such infor- 
 mation as will enable him to judge whether or not, 
 and to what extent, he should give credit to parties 
 applying for it — thereby rendering the credit system 
 safe and profitable. . . . The rapid growth of the 
 Agency during the past five years, its vastly increased 
 patronage, and the increasing confidence in it by the 
 merchants in our large cities, are sufficient proof that 
 the reports furnished are substantially correct, and a 
 safe guide in their credit operations. We have, also, 
 tested this point on a small scale, but quite to our own 
 satisfaction. We have inquired for parties well known 
 to us, and found the reports, in all cases, in admirable 
 harmony with our own opinion and knowledge of facts. 
 
 A simple inspection of the office in New York is 
 sufficient to satisfy any man that it is largely and liber- 
 
 42 
 
The JNIercaxtile Agency 
 
 ally patronized. Shrewd men do not make an expensive 
 show of biLsiness merely for etfeet. Upward of thirty 
 men are constantly occupied in the details of this office 
 alone^ condensing, copying, and giving out reports, car- 
 rying on the correspondence, etc. Their records are 
 contained in more than 100 books, of the size of the larg- 
 est ledger, extending to 600 and 700 pages each. 
 
 One other point in the operations, and one of con- 
 siderable importance, remains to be noticed, and that 
 is its effect upon the country trader. On this point, we 
 have expressed the opinion, which is the result of delib- 
 erate examination, that the system is as useful to those 
 who seek credit as to the city merchants who are called 
 upon to give it. It is a well-known fact that, formerly, 
 the trader was confined in his purchases to a few 
 houses, where he might have formed an acquaintance. If 
 wholly unacquainted, he was obliged to take letters from 
 responsible parties at home, and was limited in his busi- 
 ness relations to the few to whom those letters were 
 addressed.' Under the present arrangement, the trader 
 needs no letter of introduction. He is known to the 
 whole list of the Agency's subscribers, or. if not known, 
 becomes so. as soon as he asks a credit. He has the range 
 of the entire market in all the cities where these offices 
 are established; the communication between them being 
 such that what is known to one is known to all. He 
 need not even leave home to make his purchases. His 
 order is as good as his presence. . . . This, surely, is 
 a great advantage, which the honest, capable, and trust- 
 worthy trader cannot fail to appreciate. We are confi- 
 dent, from what we have seen and learned of the work- 
 ings of the system, that the instances in which it enlarges 
 credit to tjie country trade are vastly more numerous 
 than those in which it restrains or prevents it. There 
 are, doubtless, many w^ho, without being aware of it, 
 are now indebted to this Agency for a good standing 
 and a favorable position, in places, and with houses, 
 where once they were wholly unknown. Their sphere 
 of operations is enlarged, their business acquaintances 
 increased, and all their facilities for conducting a prof- 
 itable trade greatly extended. 
 
 43 
 
S E V E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 A second advantaiic. and by no means a light one, 
 ■vvliich the country trader derives from this system, is 
 the protection it att'ords against tlie unhealthy and in- 
 jurious competition of fraudulent or incompetent neigh- 
 bors in the same business. There is no greater draw- 
 back to the success of an honest, industrious tradesman 
 in a small town or village, than tlie irregular, sluiffling 
 transactions of a weak, lame, broken-winged or wing- 
 less rival, M'lio does everything at haphazard, buying 
 at any price, and selling at any sacrifice, merely to keep 
 up a flow of business out of which he may manage to live 
 for the time being. There are many grades of such 
 characters in the business world. Some of them are 
 flagrantly dishonest, expecting and willing to fail now 
 and then, and resolved, at all events, to have a living 
 out of any whom they can surprise into trusting them. 
 Some, on the other hand, are well-intentioned but in- 
 competent; without knowing why, or how, they find 
 themselves every now and then in failing circumstances. 
 These are more to be respected than the other class, but 
 scarcely more to be trusted. They are as much in the 
 way of the capable, energetic, well-trained business 
 man's success as the other. They have no rules to go 
 by; but provide, as they can, for each exigency as it 
 arises. They never know wdiat they are worth, or 
 whether they are worth anything at all. When they 
 open an account, or give a note, they never know whether 
 they can pay it or not. They hope to pay it, and in- 
 tend to, if they can. The experience of every well-bred 
 merchant and trader can furnisli originals for the pic- 
 ture. Against the vexatious and ruinous competition of 
 such men. The Mercantile Agency is designed and calcu- 
 lated to protect them. It would not injure the weak 
 or the unfortunate but would commend them to employ- 
 ments which they are capable of managing. Trade is a 
 science, to which many, who would make excellent me- 
 chanics or agriculturists, are w^holly incompetent. 
 
 xV third advantage to the capable and enterprising 
 trader, is found in the fact that he is, by this system, 
 brought very near to his creditors, is as it were, always 
 under their eyes, and will, consequently, be stimu- 
 lated to greater watchfulness, care and circumspection 
 
 44 
 
The JNIercaxtile Agency 
 
 in his business*. He will not be so readily tempted 
 into rash speculations or other irregular transactions, 
 which so often result in disaster and dishonor. It is 
 no discredit, even to an honest man, to say that he is 
 safer under the wholesome restraints and jealous vigi- 
 lance of society than he would be without them. ^Nlany 
 a man, -with the most upright intentions, and the most 
 confident expectations of a favorable result, has been 
 induced to invest a portion of his means, or, to speak 
 more properly, of the means of his creditors, in some 
 promising, but unfortunate enterprise, which he would 
 not have touched if those creditors had been near and 
 cognizant of the movement. Prudence is the better part, 
 not only of valor, but of thrift ; and prudence, like the 
 other virtues, is all the better for being watched. 
 
 Under the old system, it was impossible to hold an 
 effective check upon the imprudent speculations of good 
 men, or the swindling speculations of bad ones. Such 
 operations were, in general, known onl}^ to those who 
 suffered by them; and the operators having lost credit 
 with them, had onlv to beg-in ao;ain with some new con- 
 cern, and repeat the operation. Sometimes it happened 
 that a trader, who had run himself out with one set of 
 creditors, would by them be palmed off upon another, 
 as one whom they had trusted — the object of the intro- 
 duction being to get their own pay, in full, by shifting 
 off the debt on their friends. 
 
 On all such operations, the Agency is an admirable 
 check. The parties reported are known, not to their 
 present creditors only, but to all with whom they seek 
 to open a credit. . . . Such a check we regard as decid- 
 edly salutary and wholesome, and equally so to the 
 well-meaning and prudent trader as to his prudent 
 creditor. 
 
 These principles appear to ils so plain and palpable 
 that they need only to be stated. If, among the class 
 of traders, who want more credit than they find them- 
 selves able to get, any one is still disposed to object, 
 we take leave to ask on what principles he conducts 
 his own business at home. Does he trust anybody, 
 and everybody, without asking a question? When a 
 stranger comes into the neighborhood, does he open an 
 
 45 
 
5 E A E X T Y - F I y E Y EARS OF 
 
 account -with liim at once^ and to an unlimited extent, 
 M'ithout inquiring into liis affairs? Does he think it 
 mean, or dishonorable, to send to the place from whicli 
 the stranger came, and ascertain how far he was re- 
 garded worthy of credit there? Does he think the 
 former neighbors of the newcomer mean, or dislionor- 
 able, if they tell him frankly what tliey think, thereby 
 securing him a good customer, or saving him from a bad 
 one? By no means. Tlie principle is universal. It 
 belongs to the retail credit business as well as to the 
 wholesale. It governs the trader, selling his hundreds 
 or tliousands, as well as the importer, in selling his tens 
 of thousands, or millions. Confidence, as we have before 
 said, is the life of credit, and knowledge is the life of 
 confidence. Business cannot go on without it. 
 
 Prior to July, 1851, it was the policy of The 
 Mercantile Agency to refrain from reporting the 
 trade in the cities in which its offices were located. 
 Mr. Douglass saw that this would in time create two 
 distinct classes in the business community — those who 
 were reported u23on and those who were not. At the 
 outset the Agency offices had been located in the 
 cities engaged chiefly in selling to the country trade, 
 but now the chain included seyeral points where the 
 traders, w^hile sellers in their respectiye districts, were 
 buyers in the eastern centers. He, accordingly, di- 
 rected the yarious managers to report their respective 
 cities for the benefit of the other offices. 
 
 In the fall of 1851 a branch office was opened at 
 New Orleans, under the firm style of B. Douglass 
 
 6 Co. The name indicates another important 
 change in the policy of The ^Mercantile Agency, 
 namely, the discontinuance of the plan of establish- 
 ing branches under the names of the yarious local 
 
 46 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 managers. The New Orleans office was a branch of 
 the parent company at New York and nothing more, 
 its resident manager being simply a salaried employee, 
 and not a partner. As a result of this new plan, 
 which JNIr. Douglass steadfastly followed thereafter. 
 The Mercantile Agency became a nation-wide organ- 
 ization with a single directing executive at the head 
 office in New York, and a uniform policy in all its 
 branches throughout the country. 
 
 In the closing 
 months of 1851 the 
 Agency encountered 
 the most serious crisis 
 in its brief history thus 
 far. An action for li- 
 bel had been brought 
 against Lewis Tap- 
 pan by John B. and 
 Horace Beardsley, of 
 Norwalk, Ohio. The 
 suit was tried before 
 Judge Betts of the 
 United States Dis- 
 trict Court in the city 
 of New York, from 
 November 24th to December 18th, the trial attracting 
 great public attention and being extensively reported 
 in the New York daily papers during its progress. 
 The question involved in this case was the fundamental 
 one whether those who established mercantile agencies 
 47 
 
 New Orleans Office, established 1851 
 Noio occupying the second floor of the 
 New Orleans National Bank Buildinf/ 
 
S E \ i: X T Y - 1' I y E Years of 
 
 could have clerks and corresj^ondents to aid them or 
 not, and could he compelled to reveal who their cor- 
 respondents were. The great hattle of the trial took 
 place over the latter issue. Benjamin Douf^lass, who 
 had heen called as a witness, was asked during the 
 cross-examination whether in 1848 (the date of the 
 alleged libel) Lewis Tapj^an had any agent or cor- 
 
 A corner of the Neic Orleans office 
 Showing a feiv of the caMnets in which the records are Kept — 
 which here go hack 65 years 
 
 respondent in the town of Norwalk, Ohio. After care- 
 ful reflection Mr. Douglass declined to answer this 
 question and the judge adjourned court in order to 
 consider at length the legal authorities cited by both 
 sides. The following morning, Tuesday, December 
 9th, the court denied the witness the privilege to de- 
 
 48 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 cline. The question was thereuj)on repeated, and the 
 witness again declined to answer.* 
 
 The judge, in admonishing the witness, said that 
 lie was too intelligent a man not to know that his 
 first duty as a citizen was obedience to the law; the 
 law required him to answer and he ought to do so. 
 Mr. Douglass, who was evidently prepared for this 
 demand, rej^lied : 
 
 It is with deep regret^ sir, that I feel myself driven 
 by an imperious necessity to refuse obedience to the 
 order of this court. My respect for you personally, 
 aside from that due to your office, makes this action 
 painful. I entertain the greatest respect and venera- 
 tion for the laws of my country and her courts of jus- 
 tice; but I have maturely deliberated on this question, 
 and feel bound to come to the conclusion to decline to 
 answer. When I first went into the employment of Mr. 
 Lewis Tappan, as his confidential clerk, he demanded, 
 and I gavCj a solemn pledge, under no circumstances, 
 to disclose the names of the agents, or of any one of 
 them, but to keep them an inviolable secret within 
 my own breast. I have done so. I thought that Mr. 
 Tappan had a legitimate right to demand that pledge, 
 and that it was proper for me to give it. I did not see 
 in my giving that pledge, that it could have an injurious 
 effect on the public interest. I thought Mr. Tappan's 
 business a useful one. I believed it greatly promotive 
 of good morals and of a sound, healthy ^tate of trade. 
 But, sir, I am now one of the successor^ of Mr. Tappan 
 in this very business, and many of his former agents 
 are my agents, and I am now bound to them as 
 Mr. Tappan then was, and these agents are numerous 
 all over the country. I feel myself held by a solemn 
 obligation to these agents, and it is in order to save 
 myself from the disgrace and infamy, which I believe 
 would follow me in answering this question, that I have 
 
 * From report of the trial in the New York Herald of Decemher 12th, 1851. 
 
 49 
 
S E Y E X T Y - F I Y E Y E A K S OF 
 
 resolutely determined, though very respectfully^ to the 
 court;, to decline to answer, and I assure you had tliis 
 court the power to deprive me of my life, and sliould 
 they threaten it, I w^ould yet fearlessly stand by and 
 preserve intact my sacred honor. For these reasons. 
 Judge Betts, I feel that I am fully justified before my 
 fellow citizens, and I hope before the court, in declin- 
 ing to answer this question. If your honor still per- 
 sists in your determination to compel me to answer, 
 although it would be very unpleasant to be deprived of 
 my liberty, and separated from my family, still, there 
 is no alternative, and I have resolved to face the 
 situation. 
 
 At the conclusion of this address the witness was 
 committed to the Eldridge Street Jail, for contempt 
 of court, where he remained twenty days. The judge 
 allowed him to be confined in the house in front of the 
 jail, but a part of it. He had a room on the first floor, 
 where he carried on business as if he were in his own 
 office, messengers going to and fro CYcry day. The trial 
 continued until December 18th, resulting in a Yerdict 
 for the plaintiff. On appeal to the United States Cir- 
 cuit Court this judgment was affirmed, but on sub- 
 sequent appeal to the Supreme Court of the United 
 States it was rcYcrsed. During this incarceration in 
 the defense of a principle upon which, in his opin- 
 ion, the Yery existence of The Mercantile Agency 
 depended, ]Mr. Douglass was Yisited by all of the em- 
 ployees in the Xew York office and presented with 
 the Address reproduced on the opposite page. He 
 subsequently stated that his determined refusal to 
 answer the question put to him "aided greatly in es- 
 tablishing the agencies in the confidence of the pubhc, 
 
 50 
 
heg /eat. 
 
 Ut7// UptJ!' 
 
 recognizes a rtgM 
 UndedJ, wAen i/ie tn!t 
 
 jland you look on iht 
 
 • " aMres.t, (jpresswe of c 
 
 '/erA-s of lAe cjt 
 e/ee/jf^^^^^^) with i/ou in ijour present, painful jifuahon, 
 
 fVe regard {/le /ate a//emp/ 6t/ Juc/ye BeUs lo compel t/ou. as a 
 cerlain questions objected toby you, as fi? (^aaSniaaa) of 
 ;irip/e, da:u/erous in tendency . and oppresiive in result We cannot suppose /Aat tke i^^^^^) 
 : : : ; : '/n individual mto a /t/lMc .^irficMCl^/ -/uii .^Uvole'JtihTlAi^i (to uhicA these ifuestions directty 
 i./j"1y'^^^uMu^jn|tt^) f?^ not demaiu^ it 
 
 Jfe Jiaifc maried witA JiiyA sa/isftution //(-(^on^aMel;^^?i^^a^) 
 occasion, so indicaiii/e of the "nobility of m3.T\\\i>o(i" a//d so creditab/e lo ycur own/^^^^^^'^^^^^^i^^^^ Your 
 address to He Court does^qual Aoiwr to you as a(^T72^^U'Ao(^^§PJ^T^/^H^/^Ch^yand as (zn^^^S^H^T) u'Ao is determaied to praaiv 
 m(^^^(^^ the {^^den^ reposed mbim. '^^^^^ ^ 
 
 Ke Aat^e^jwt^ uords . dear Sir , m u/AtcA to express our mdiy nation at 
 lAis (^tH^^ on your persona/ libertt/ , nor our strong and earrust (^^tJSAX^^^ witA you in tAe suffinny it entails Bi^l ijou are 
 not atone in your si^ertngs Jar conscience saAe. /n atl ages, and in all eomniunities , there hai^ been, and are , diose who Aave resolved, like 
 you, regardless of conseguences f kKt:\e?>%\^ to stand by and preseTV'e^nfact their sacred honor" It is therefore that, while u-e express 
 our feelings in your msfortane . u-e can congralidalc tjou on «/■ (TRT^U^^^h) over an expedieiug thai would seek to elei'ote itself 
 above. tji£ /qffiness ^/^^(^rljicipl^j^ 
 
 We cannot auotd remar/cinff that ourselves participate in some 
 degree in your affliclwn. We Aare la regret tAe absence of Ann uAo ivas the /^j^ tZfu{ ^tio of our operations ,^ of one uAose c/is<ll/ 
 /Ui/^ttUn^ andM^U^/U CCtl/llde/ constituted our safest appeal in all cases of doubt or difftadty. But on the other hand we coiir 
 cdve that u-e borrow some of the (^^T^^ ^\your position, in as much as .' <'/'({ee]^^^l.in^me measizre^gf 
 
 ^'^sis^;, and are idejitjfied ii-ith that (^^^^^ u-hich ijou hm-e Jo^^il UuI;. tv^rS^ so (^^^fuff^(^6taU^d^ 
 
 [n tde manner u-e feel cainnated in the discharge of our duty by the exam/..:. , the consistent performance of yours. 
 
 ;-s^-5,--— y-'—C^ f^-~~-iZ:>~~.. An your (^bii^i)<jiX\^{jJ of what aJt must regard as a just prin- 
 ciple, the^^^^WS^'^;^^^jfjh^^Xl-m^f^^\^^Aave the jurest__giJam^e of your (^00^^^^^, your '^TRONS^VS-J/f 
 
 SVSXNSeJ^, and 
 
 the strongest assurance^lhat their ^I^TESSSTS^ are priJtected , and WVj?]]^^Yj u-iU recognize and appreciate the consistency 
 
 with which you have maintained u-hal uv conceiie to be , their, and gour,{\\l^iC^\.vi au^ ^UloUitia^k^U^^^m their utmostl^^_ 
 
 W'lli ardent prayers for your speedy restoration to you 
 ^^eil£/, c^ai^^ii/, ve>l^ 
 
 .Jfitiy Je^/d ycfA'^y 
 
 : f^^^y2^.It ^ 
 
 ifOtt/lili 
 
 Te-itimonial presented to Benjamin Douglass the employees of 
 The Mercantile Ayency, December loth, iSol 
 
S E y E X T Y - F I y E Years of 
 
 because men saw that they could giye information to 
 the agencies, and that these would not betray the con- 
 fidence reposed in them."* His action in this matter 
 was so highly regarded by his fellow citizens that a 
 delegation of them, headed by Horace Greeley, waited 
 upon him to offer the nomination to the office of 
 Mayor of the city. This offer he was compelled to 
 decline, because the cares and responsibilities of the 
 management of the Agency were such that he did not 
 feel at liberty, in justice to his associates and subscrib- 
 ers, to relinquish them for the sake of seeking politi- 
 cal preferment. Later oj^inion has confirmed the 
 judgment of his contemporaries with respect to the 
 merits of the position taken by j\Ir. Douglass and the 
 courage with which he maintained his conyictions. 
 "In its way, his action was like that of John Hamp- 
 den." "His refusal to answer a question tending to 
 disclose matters communicated to him in confidence 
 . . . shows a high degree of honor and courage, and 
 his statement of his reasons is lofty and noble in ex- 
 pression." "He was as true as steel." These are 
 some typical comments. 
 
 In 1852 the chain of offices operated by The 
 Mercantile Agency was further extended by a 
 branch at Pittsburgh. The Philadelphia office had 
 already obtained a number of subscribers among the 
 leading firms there, but in accordance with his policy 
 of haying no more semi-independent branches INIr. 
 
 *Joseph W. Errant, The Law Relating to Mercantile Agencies, page 22. 
 Mr. Errant adds : "The judgment for the plaintiff in this case is, of course, 
 an exception, and must be attributed to the fact that the courts and the public 
 were not yet educated up to the needs and objects of the mercantile agencies." 
 
 52 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 Douglass opened the Pittsburgh office under the firm 
 style of B. Douglass & Co. The Philadelphia office 
 wrote up a set of books for the younger office to 
 start with, conipi-ising the names on its records for 
 Western Pennsyl- 
 vania, Western Mary- 
 1 a n d, Southwestern 
 Virginia, and South- 
 ern and Eastern 
 Ohio. At that time 
 Pittsburgh had 46,601 
 inhabitants and w^as 
 already one of the 
 foremost industrial 
 centers in the country. 
 In 1853 an office was 
 established at Charles- 
 ton, South Carolina, 
 under the firm style of 
 B. Douglass & Co. In 
 those days the South 
 was relatively much 
 more developed than 
 the Xorth and West, 
 cotton being a staple 
 that was in steady demand for export. Charleston had 
 a population of 42,985 in the census of 1850, as com- 
 pared with 29,963 for Chicago at the same date. The 
 fact that Mr. Douglass had for a time engaged in 
 business there may have also influenced his decision to 
 
 lllili^ 
 gggglE 
 
 §llli& 
 
 eiiils 
 iiiiii 
 PiiiiP 
 mill 
 iiiiii 
 
 f ! • ■ P r 
 
 Pittshurgh Office, opened 1S52 
 The present offiee occupies the entire 11th 
 floor of the Keenan Building 
 
 53 
 
S E V E N T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 make this the tenth office in the Agency cliain. The 
 ra2)id growth of the Agency during this period is 
 indicated hy the fact that in 1854 the number of sub- 
 scribers of the Philadelj^hia office reached 1,000, INIr. 
 Goodrich giving a dinner at the INIerchants' Hotel, in 
 honor of the event. 
 
 On June 1st of that year Benjamin Douglass 
 assumed the sole ownership of The Mercantile 
 Agency. As this date marks so important a change 
 in the control of the institution it may also be taken 
 as terminating the period during which the policies 
 were in process of development. As w^e have seen, 
 Benjamin Douglass was the dominant factor in shap- 
 ing the destinies of the Agency during this period 
 of its history and the fact that it has survived to this 
 day was undoubtedly due to his efforts. He had dur- 
 ing these few years greatly strengthened the chain of 
 branch offices in the South and West, compelled every 
 office to report traders in its district for the benefit 
 of all, and, by his unswerving fidelity to principle in 
 the Beardsley trial, established the fact that informa- 
 tion given to the Agency in confidence would be for^ 
 ever held inviolable. 
 
 54 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 The Agency Becomes a National Institution 
 
 1854-1859 
 
 On assuming the sole ownership of The Mercan- 
 tile Agency, Mr. Douglass made Robert Graham 
 Dun a partner, the firm style at New York becoming 
 B. Douglass & Co., while at Boston, Philadelphia, 
 Baltimore and Cincinnati the branches continued 
 under the same names as before. Five of the other 
 branches were now trading under the name of B. 
 Douglass & Co., St. Louis and Louisville having 
 changed to that style prior to 1854. In an advertis- 
 ing circular written in 1854, after recounting the list 
 of branch offices already organized, the author gives 
 a most interesting account of the activities of the 
 Agency at that date: 
 
 In all these places, as well as in New York, The 
 Mercantile Agency is liberally patronized by the banks 
 and bankers, as well as merchants of every description. 
 
 The troubles of 1837 made the necessity for its 
 existence apparent. The requirements of trade, the gen- 
 eral accuracy of the information, and the great good 
 which it was found to accomplish, gave it general favor 
 and acceptance, and, for the last seven or eight years, 
 the onward progress of the Agency has been very 
 rapid. It now employs in the New York office some 
 sixty-five clerks, most of whom are constantly engaged 
 in recording the information daily received and in at- 
 tending upon the numerous calls of its subscribers. 
 
 55 
 
S E Y E X T Y - F I Y E Y Y. A K S OF 
 
 Every merchant, banker, lawyer and trader, great or 
 small, is, in tlie si)here of his own operations, a mer- 
 cantile agency. This institution does on a large scale 
 what individuals have done on a small one. Merchants, 
 by uniting in its support, obtain better information, and 
 on much more reasonable terms, than they could other- 
 wise procure at any expense Avhicli could be afforded. 
 About one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars is 
 yearly expended in this business and the amount of this 
 expense is necessarily increasing. The proprietors have 
 determined to be up to the times and to afford all the 
 assistance and encouragement to the legitimate trade 
 of the country which their means and extensive ramifi- 
 cations will allow them to do. 
 
 The first ]ir<>a<l iraii office of The Mercantile Agency — B. Douglass 
 Co. — (oa.s located on the first floor of the old Trinity Building, 
 111 Broaduay, shoicn at the left, from ISoJ, to 18-')7 
 
 As an eYidence of their determination "to be up 
 to the times," the firm proceeded Yigorously to extend 
 their chain of offices in the West and South. In 1854, 
 the Yery year of the new partnership, a branch office 
 was opened at Chicago. That city was then just be- 
 ginning to assume the aspect of a commercial metrop- 
 ohs, though on a small scale as measured by present 
 
 56 
 
The INIercaxtile Agency 
 
 standards. In 1823 the village consisted of ten or 
 twelve houses and 60 or 70 inhabitants. In 1832 there 
 were five small stores and 250 inhabitants. In 1840 
 it contained four foreign commission houses, 97 retail 
 stores, 11 lumber yards, one furnace, two flour mills, 
 one distillery, three 
 printing offices, one 
 bindery, two daily and 
 two weekly news- 
 papers. The popula- 
 tion was 4,470. At 
 that date the first 
 railroad had not yet 
 reached what was des- 
 tined to become the 
 greatest railroad cen- 
 ter in the world. All 
 merchandise arrived 
 and departed by lake 
 vessels and by the 
 Illinois & Michigan 
 Canal, which con- 
 nected the little lake 
 port with the head of 
 
 steamboat navigation on the Illinois River, through 
 which, in turn, it reached all parts of the ]Mississippi 
 River Valley. Ten years later the population had in- 
 creased to 29,963 (Census of 1850), and by 1854 had 
 quite likely risen to double that total, for then the 
 
 57 
 
 Chicago Office, estahlisJied i85^ 
 Present quarters, entire 1.3th and part of 
 12th floors, Neto York Life Building 
 
Seventy - FIVE Years of 
 
 railroads had come at last and the era of Chicago's 
 astounding commercial expansion had dawned. The 
 early date at which this office was estahlished is of 
 interest as illustrating the keenness with which the 
 chiefs of the Agency foresaw the trend of commercial 
 growth. 
 
 In 1856 offices 
 were established at 
 Detroit and at Rich- 
 mond, Va., the latter 
 under the style of 
 Pratt & Co., as a 
 branch of J. D. Pratt 
 & Co., of Baltimore. 
 It was the last office to 
 be established under a 
 style entirely different 
 from that of the 
 parent organization. 
 The Chicago and De- 
 troit offices were or- 
 ganized under the firm 
 style of B. Douglass 
 &Co. In April, 1855, 
 Mr. Douglass bought out Mr. Goodrich at Philadel- 
 phia and changed the style there to B. Douglass & Co. 
 The following year an office was opened at Dubuque, 
 Iowa — the fourteenth in the Agency chain. 
 
 Thus far, the growth of The Mercantile Agency 
 had been confined within the limits of the United 
 
 Detroit Office, established 1856 
 The present quarters occupy 3,lip square 
 feet in Union Trust Company Building 
 
 58 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 States. The year 1857 was a notable one in the an- 
 nals of the organization as marking its first extension 
 into foreign lands, branch offices being established at 
 London, England, and Montreal, Canada. The Lon- 
 don office was opened September 1st, under the style 
 of B. Douglass & Co. 
 One of the first steps 
 taken by the manager 
 of the new branch to 
 acquaint the mercan- 
 tile community with 
 the nature and pur- 
 poses of the institution 
 was to issue a London 
 edition of the circular 
 quoted on pages 55-56, 
 together with a re- 
 print of the article in 
 Hunt's M 67' chants' 
 Magazine of January, 
 1851. The printing 
 was done by Jones & ^. , , , ,7 , , .o-n " 
 
 *' Richmond Office, established 18;j6 
 
 CaUSton, Eastcheap present located in Mutual Building, 
 
 close to the hub of Richmond's activities 
 
 and Puddrng Lane, 
 
 and the little circular is a beautiful example of the 
 printer's art. 
 
 There was a need for such literature, for the mer- 
 cantile agency idea, as it had been originated and 
 deyeloped in the United States by Messrs. Tappan 
 and Douglass and their associates in The Mercantile 
 
 59 
 
S E Y E X T Y - F I y E Y E A R S OF 
 
 Agency, was then new to the United Kingdom. The 
 London office was opened primarily because the Xew 
 York office ah'eady had on its ledgers as clients the 
 names of a number of the leading export houses in the 
 United Kingdom. The interests of these clients could 
 be better served by an office in their own country, 
 while such a branch 
 enabled the Agency to 
 offer the facilities of 
 i t s organization t o 
 houses in the United 
 States which required 
 the protection thus 
 afforded for the safe 
 conduct of commercial 
 transactions across the 
 Atlantic. This first 
 outpost in the 
 Agency's now world- 
 wide chain of offices 
 OYerseas was original- 
 ly located in a small 
 room in the Unity 
 Building, 10 Cannon 
 
 Street, London, E. C, but the business proved so 
 successful that six years later larger quarters were 
 secured at 24 Basinghall Street. At the outset, 
 the London branch confined its business to export 
 and import houses trading between the two coun- 
 tries, but it was not long before the mercantile 
 
 London Office, established 1857 
 The first branch of the Agency abroad — 
 uoif at Kings' House, King St., Cheapside 
 
 60 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 community in Great Britain began to perceive the 
 value of the service, and the office found itself called 
 upon to report to clients on British as well as Ameri- 
 can traders. At present, and for many years past, 
 this has constituted by far the larger part of the busi- 
 ness of the London branch, necessitating the establish- 
 ment of suboffices at Glasgow, Scotland, in 1872, 
 and, more recently, at Manchester and Birmingham, 
 England, and at Belfast, Ireland. It is an interesting 
 
 Montreal Office, established 1857 
 Xoic occupiiing most of the third floor of the east icing in the 
 Board of Trade Building 
 
 fact that "Subscriber No. 1" of the London office, a 
 prominent house, has been continuously on its books 
 since 1857. 
 
 The first branch of The Mercantile Agency in 
 Canada was established at Montreal the same year as 
 that at London. Its purpose was for a time misunder- 
 stood by the conservative business community of the 
 colony, which did not see that the institution was 
 designed to meet their own needs. This made it 
 
 61 
 
S E A E X T Y - F I V E Y E A K S OF 
 
 difficult at the outset to glean the information neces- 
 sary for the compilation of mercantile reports. The 
 
 TJir office of B. Douf/lass cC- Co. at Sllf Broadiraii in isr,s 
 This teas the head office of The Mercantile Agency from 1857 to 186^ 
 and again from 1878 until 1898 
 
 ability and tact of the early managers gradually 
 overcame this difficulty, however, and the rapid 
 
 62 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 growth of the business in later years affords ample 
 evidence of the general confidence and esteem with 
 which the Agency is now regarded throughout that 
 country, where at present it operates offices in nearly 
 every important mercantile center from the Atlantic 
 to the Pacific. During the year 1858 the list of offices 
 was further extended by the opening of branches 
 at Cleveland, Ohio; Milwaukee, Wis.; and Toronto, 
 Canada. 
 
 An interesting contemporary picture of the ac- 
 tivities of The Mercantile Agency at this period of 
 its development has been preserved for us in the 
 pages of the Bankers' Magazine and Statistical Regis- 
 ter, of New York. In its issue for January, 1858, 
 this periodical devoted several pages to an account 
 of the system as it then existed. The following ex- 
 tracts from this description of the Agency as it ap- 
 peared to an observer fifty-eight years ago are still 
 of interest: 
 
 THE MERCANTILE AGENCY SYSTEM 
 
 I. ITS FIRST ORGANIZATION. II. ITS IMMEDIATE OBJECTS. 
 
 III. ITS COLLATERAL BENEFITS. 
 
 The Mercantile Agency is the name used by a firm 
 having its headquarters in New York, and branch houses 
 in the leading cities of the United States ; and in Mon- 
 treal, Canada, and London, England. The principal 
 object of the Agency is to supply to annual subscribers 
 information respecting the character, capacity and pecu- 
 niary condition of persons asking credit. The valuable 
 services it has rendered to the domestic trade of the 
 country, as a check upon our credit system, are acknowl- 
 edged by the mercantile community. Its history, to- 
 gether with an explanation of its mode of operation, 
 
 63 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 may not be without interest to the general reader and 
 foreign mercliant. 
 
 The Agency was first established in ISl-l, in the 
 city of New York, by Mr. Lewis Tappan, and was con- 
 ducted by liim. upon a comparatively limited scale, until 
 1846, wlien ^Ir. Benjamin Douglass became his co- 
 adjutor, and assumed the chief management. From 
 this time the business increased rapidly, and assumed 
 a permanent and recognized position among the mercan- 
 tile institutions of tlie country. In 1849, Mr. Lewis 
 Tappan disposed of his entire interest in the business 
 to Mr. Douglass and Mr. Artlmr Tappan, wlio formed 
 a partnersliip to continue five years, at the end of which 
 time, and by virtue of agreements prospectively en- 
 tered into, Mr. Douglass became sole proprietor; and 
 the present style was adopted with the admission of 
 Mr. R. Graham Dun. 
 
 Our limits will not permit us to trace, step by step, 
 the growth of the Agency, or to dwell upon the personal 
 aspects of its history. Founded upon the interests of 
 merchants, and conducted from the beginning by men of 
 ability, capacity for work, high character, and thorough 
 knowledge of the wants of mercantile business, its prog- 
 ress has been uninterrupted. From New York it has 
 extended its branch and associate offices to seventeen 
 other cities, viz., Philadelphia, Boston, Montreal, Balti- 
 more, Richmond, Petersburg, Charleston, New Or- 
 leans, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, Mil- 
 waukee, Dubuque, St. Louis, Detroit, and London, 
 England. All these branches are under the direction 
 of the proprietors at New York, and are governed by 
 uniform rules. A daily interchange of information 
 facilitates the answering of the inquiries of the respec- 
 tive subscribers for all parts of the country. 
 
 It is obvious that the gigantic labor of reporting 
 the business men of Canada and the United States 
 could not be performed by any one office, nor could 
 the expense be borne by the merchants of any one city. 
 B. Douglass & Co. perform it by means of their sys- 
 tem of branch offices, each supported by the subscrip- 
 tions of the merchants, bankers and manufacturers of 
 the city in which it is located. The district allotted to 
 
 64 
 
The Mercantile Agenc 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 each office is the section of the country of which the city 
 in M'hich it is located is tlie trade center. For instance, 
 the Boston office reports tliat portion of the New Eng- 
 land States of wliich it has the cliief trade; the Dubuque, 
 the great part of loM^a ; the ]\Iilwaukee, Wisconsin; the 
 Charleston, South Carolina and Georgia ; while the Oliio 
 Valley is divided between the offices at Pittsburgh, Cin- 
 cinnati and Louisville. 
 
 This subdivision of labor is the means of securing 
 a minuteness and accuracy of reports, which, to any one 
 unacquainted witli the machinery of the Agency, is truly 
 astonishing. The operations of a branch office do not 
 embrace a large extent of country. They are usually 
 limited to the 150 or 200 counties, the majority of whose 
 traders buy their goods chiefly at the city where it is 
 established. In each of these counties the principal of 
 the office secures one, two, three, or more correspond- 
 ents, the number varying with the population and the 
 division of the local trade among the towns. These corre- 
 spondents are selected for their integrity, long residence 
 in the county, general acquaintance, business experience 
 and judgment. Their duties are to advise the Agency 
 promptly, by letter or telegraph, of every change af- 
 fecting the standing or responsibility of traders; to 
 notify it of suits, protests, mortgages, losses by fire, en- 
 dorsements or otherwise; to answer all special inquiries 
 addressed to them by any of the associate offices ; and to 
 revise before each trade season, or oftener if required, 
 the previous reports of every trader in the county, 
 noting any change for the better or worse. No report 
 is considered full unless it embraces, in regard to each 
 trader, his business, the length of time he has pursued it, 
 his success, or the contrary, his age, character, habits, 
 capacity, means, prospects, property out of business, 
 real estate, judgments, mortgages or other liens upon his 
 property. The greatest care is taken in selecting the 
 agents, who furnish the bulk of the information to the 
 Agency. Their integrity of character, freedom from 
 prejudice, and from any entangling connections with 
 mercantile men which might bias them in their reports, 
 their social position, influence and opportunities for 
 knowing thoroughly the men they are reporting, are all 
 
 66 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 taken carefully into consideration^ and the very great 
 success and expansion of the business is, we have little 
 doubt, to be attributed, in a great measure, to the judg- 
 ment and careful discrimination which has been exer- 
 cised in this particular. Nevertheless, after all this 
 care in the selection of the agents, prudence would seem 
 to require some check upon them. This is done by trav- 
 eling agents who are sent through the country, and who 
 report the traders upon their own resources, and gen- 
 erally without any knowledge of what the local agent 
 has previously reported. Their reports are compared 
 carefully with those of the local agent, and any dis- 
 crepancy thoroughly investigated. Again, much infor- 
 mation of a most valuable character is derived from 
 special correspondents, as bank cashiers, insurance 
 agents, notaries public, sheriffs, and others, whose offi- 
 cial position gives them peculiar opportunities of 
 knowing not only the resources and character of busi- 
 ness men, but also the degree of promptness with which 
 they meet their business obligations. Another source of 
 information is that afforded by merchants themselves, 
 who frequently make "statements" of their own affairs 
 from their books. These are given under their own 
 signature, with the avowed purpose of having them used 
 by the Agency as a basis for credit. The leading facts 
 contained in such "statements" are, of course, always 
 made a matter of special investigation. For instance, a 
 merchant in his "statement" says he owns a farm or a 
 number of town lots, in a certain county, worth a certain 
 sum. The records of the county are examined to see if 
 any such property stands in his name ; the estimate he 
 puts upon it is compared with that given by persons 
 acquainted with the value of property in that locality; 
 and, lastly, a careful examination is made to ascertain if 
 any encumbrance exists against it, not mentioned in the 
 voluntary statement of the merchant. All the other 
 facts in his statement are scrutinized in like manner, 
 and it is thus subjected to a very searching analysis. 
 Reports obtained with the care thus exhibited and from 
 such a variety of sources, must certainly approach as 
 near perfection as is practicable under any circum- 
 stances. 
 
 67 
 
Se VEX TY - FIVE YeARS OF 
 
 The records of each office are arranged according 
 to counties. Each partnership and individual name is 
 indexed for convenience of reference on inquiry being 
 made by subscribers. The reports coming in daily are 
 copied without delay in the book for the county to M'hicii 
 they refer, and transmitted by mail or express to the 
 next or central office. All unfavorable information is 
 promptly copied on slips, and sent simultaneously to all 
 the offices whose subscribers' interests are probably in- 
 volved tlierein. Serious embarrassments, assignments 
 and failures are telegraphed. The mass of information 
 thus contributed by the branches to the central office 
 passes into the hands of the chief clerk, is distributed 
 by him to the heads of departments^ by them in their 
 turn parceled out among the clerks, and by these last 
 recorded and indexed in the proper books. Tlie records 
 of the New York office of The ^Mercantile Agency con- 
 tain the aggregate knowledge of traders possessed by 
 the seventeen most flourishing mercantile communities 
 in North America. . . . 
 
 A comparison of the system of The Mercantile 
 Agency with that of the "Commercial Traveler/' which 
 it superseded, is much to the advantage of the former^ 
 as regards the item of cost as well as information. 
 From a large dry goods house we learn that, in old times, 
 its expenses for travelers counted by thousands, and 
 that it was, to a vexatious extent, in the power of clerks, 
 who were anxious to make sales, and whose good opinion 
 was more often won by civilities than by responsibility. 
 Now, it holds an efficient check upon its salesmen, who 
 travel, not to choose customers, but to make collections, 
 and obtain orders from those chosen by the firm. 
 
 We need not multiply illustrations. The usefulness 
 of the Agency is unquestionable. Without it, the credit 
 system, in a country like ours, with vast distances be- 
 tween seller and buyer, would make mercantile pursuits 
 the most uncertain of all. Its principal advantages are 
 as follows: 
 
 It points out to the city merchant solvent, prudent 
 and thriving customers ; cautions him against the doubt- 
 ful ; and apprizes him promptly of changes which make 
 it proper to press the collection of his claims. 
 
 68 
 
The JNIercaxtile Agency 
 
 It makes the solvent and punctual trader known in 
 every city giving him credit, and dispenses altogether 
 with letters of introduction or guarantees. 
 
 It protects him from the ruinous competition of the 
 inexperienced, the incompetent and the fraudulent. 
 
 It prevents delay in the delivery of goods ordered, 
 giving full reports of the purchaser. 
 
 It corrects many evils incident to the credit system, 
 and tends to keep commercial business in the hands of 
 men of integrity, means and experience. 
 
 It tends to promote a high standard of mercantile 
 honor, to check speculation and extravagance, to en- 
 hance the value of punctuality and good character, and 
 to make it the interest of every trader to be temperate, 
 industrious, economical and desirous of an unspotted 
 reputation. 
 
 Future changes in the credit system of the United 
 States may introduce new features into the Agency, and 
 modify its machinery ; but the experience and thorough 
 business ability of the present proprietors are sufficient 
 guarantee that all modifications will be in accordance 
 with the wants of the mercantile community. 
 
 This picture of the activities of The jNIercantile 
 Agency of fifty-eight years ago is of interest as show- 
 ing the care and thoroughness with which it collected 
 the valuable information it was designed to supply. 
 Later years have brought many changes and improve- 
 ments, but the success of the institution is largely due 
 to the work of its original founders — to the sound 
 principles of credit investigation laid down by Lewis 
 Tappan, and to the genius for systematization and 
 organization displayed by Benjamin Douglass in ex- 
 panding and co-ordinating the work of the various 
 branches. 
 
 69 
 
S E V E X T Y - F I y E Y E A R S OF 
 
 In 1857 Tlie ^lercantile Agency began the pub- 
 lication of detailed statistics regarding mercantile 
 failures in the United States and Canada. It was 
 ininiediately recognized as the national authority on 
 this subject — a fact that justifies the title selected for 
 this chapter. As the first report issued presented the 
 failures for the year 1856, the returns compiled and 
 published by The ^Mercantile Agency now cover a 
 period of six decades, during two of w^hich they were 
 the only statistics on the subject. 
 
 It is difficult to ascertain after a lapse of sixty 
 years precisely when and how the idea of compiling 
 and publishing failure statistics for the country as 
 a whole originated. Probably, however, like most 
 conceptions of real and lasting value, it was a matter 
 of gradual development. At all events, certain facts 
 are matters of record, and these, when set down in 
 their chronological order, give a fairly clear and com- 
 plete history of the inception and early development 
 of this phase of The Mercantile Agency's work. On 
 January 17th, 1856, the New York Independent pub- 
 lished the following paragraphs on the subject of credit 
 in its column headed "Commercial and Financial": 
 
 The time has come when a more rigid credit system 
 must be adopted, not only in New York, but all over 
 the country. Probably nine-tenths of the failures which 
 have ever occurred in large cities can be directly traced 
 either to recklessness or bad management in giving 
 credits. Many a concern has started with fair prospects 
 for a prosperous career^ but^ determining to distinguish 
 themselves at the outset, have plunged headlong the first 
 year into a long credit business amounting to more than 
 
 70 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 twenty times the capital invested. We mean literally 
 what we say. The mistake once made can seldom ever 
 be remedied. The concern is crippled^, and its brilliant 
 prospects fade away. . . . 
 
 We commend the whole subject of credits to the 
 consideration of our mercantile readers, and urge them 
 to take such action as will fairly inaugurate a reform^ 
 indispensable to their prosperity and healthful in its in- 
 fluence upon the country. 
 
 Do you doubt the importance of this subject.^ Then 
 look over the balance sheet just completed, and see if 
 what we say is not important. Look at your interest 
 account, and you will doubtless obtain some light from 
 that quarter. Look over your bad debts, and by that 
 time you will probably be satisfied. Probe matters to 
 the bottom, and see if carelessness and recklessness in 
 giving credits have not done you more damage than all 
 other influences combined. If you are convinced of the 
 fact, change your course in future, or never open your 
 mouth with murmurings if your career is speedily run, 
 and you fall into the ranks of the Broken Merchants' 
 Army. 
 
 Nothing was said in the passages just quoted 
 about inaugurating a new department in the journal, 
 and a new departure in the annals of business, but the 
 following week (January 24th, 1856) in the same 
 * 'Commercial and Financial" section, there appeared 
 a brief summary of a contemporary failure, which was 
 followed by similar items each week until the feature 
 began to attract national attention. This interesting 
 and valuable information was obtained from The Mer- 
 cantile Agency, and was thus the forerunner of the 
 Agency's systematic compilation of failure returns. 
 In Hunt's Merchants' Magazine for February, 1857 
 (vol. xxxvi, p. 595), appeared a brief summary of 
 the failures for 1856, by States, as foUows: 
 
 71 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 MERCANTILE FAILURES IN 1856 
 
 The following: statement of failures in the United 
 States during the year 1856, emanated from "The Mer- 
 cantile Agency" of the city of New York: 
 
 MERCANTILE FAILURES IX THE UNITED STATES FOR THE 
 YEAR 1856. 
 
 
 
 
 •§ 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 States : 
 
 
 
 
 States : 
 
 
 
 a '■' s 
 
 
 
 '1% 
 
 Z a 
 
 Ct-O 
 
 
 
 •^c 
 
 _ i. a 
 - - ? 
 
 New York 
 
 708 
 
 31 
 
 119 
 
 
 35 
 
 
 21 
 
 Ohio 
 
 241 
 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 Missouri 
 
 32 
 
 '2 
 
 6 
 
 Pennsylvania . . . . 
 
 234 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 Vermont 
 
 32 
 
 1 
 
 16 
 
 Massachusetts ... 
 
 179 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 South Carolina... 
 
 31 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 Illinois 
 
 169 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 28 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 Virginia 
 
 146 
 
 6 
 
 31 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 24 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 
 92 
 
 6 
 
 23 
 
 New Hampshire.. 
 
 23 
 
 
 
 
 81 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 22 
 
 
 '3 
 
 Maine 
 
 68 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 21 
 
 
 10 
 
 British Provinces. 67 
 
 6 
 
 18 
 
 Alabama 
 
 18 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 Iowa 
 
 57 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 Territories & Cal- 
 
 
 
 
 
 53 
 
 
 14 
 
 ifornia 
 
 17 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 North Carolina . . 
 
 53 
 
 '5 
 
 31 
 
 Texas 
 
 16 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 47 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 Florida 
 
 12 
 8 
 
 
 
 Maryland and 
 
 
 
 
 
 Delaware 
 
 44 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 38 
 
 
 4 
 
 Total 2,705 
 
 
 
 The weekly reports of failures, published originally 
 in the Independent, are made up at The Mercantile 
 Agency^ and w^e have no doubt are correct. The facil- 
 ities which that institution has at command keep it well 
 posted. The failures reported last year (1856) amount 
 to more than twenty-seven hundred in number, and it 
 would not be extravagant to put them down at an 
 average of $20,000 each, which would give an aggregate 
 of $54,100,000. The probability is that the creditors 
 of these failures have not received, on an average, more 
 than 25 per cent, of their claims, which involves a loss 
 of $40,000,000. 
 
 This is the first return of faihires for the whole 
 of the United States and Canada ever pubhshed, and 
 was the starting point of the series of reports on this 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 important subject that have since been compiled and 
 issued by The Mercantile Agency without interrup- 
 tion. The intimate connection between mercantile 
 failures and the general condition of trade and indus- 
 try during the period when the bankruptcies took place 
 led naturally, and al- 
 most inevitably, to the 
 pre23aration of a re- j|fffi!%i ,. | 
 
 25th, 1857." This 
 
 table reported 5,123 failures, as against 2,705 for 
 the year 1856, and also gave the returns for some 
 of the large cities, as well as for each of tlie 
 States and Canada. Both the number of failures 
 
 view of the business 
 situation in conjunc- 
 tion with the statistics 
 showing the commer- 
 cial mortality. The 
 circular of January, 
 1858, issued by B. 
 Douglass & Co., The 
 Mercantile Agency, 
 gave an extensive and 
 interesting review of 
 the panic of 1857, to- 
 gether with a table 
 showing the "Statis- 
 tics as to Failures 
 from December 25th, 
 1856, t o December 
 
 CIci:ehin(l Office, cstahlishcd 1S5S 
 At present occupying 6,000 square feet of 
 floor space in the Centura Building 
 
 73 
 
S i: A' i: X r v - i- i \ i: Y e a r s o f 
 
 and liabilities were given in eaeh ease. The eir- 
 eular for January, 18.51), omitted these subdivisions, 
 but gave comparative figures for the preceding year. 
 The circular issued in January, IHGO, contained a 
 veritable broadside of statistics, giving all of the sub- 
 divisions of two years 
 before and com])ara- 
 tive statistics for 18.57, 
 in addition to those 
 for 18.59. The annual 
 circulars for the next 
 few years were less 
 elaborate, giving only 
 the number of failures 
 and amount of liabil- 
 ities for the Xorthern 
 States and Canada — 
 no figures regarding 
 the South being avail- 
 a b 1 e. Fortunately, 
 the record by States 
 was kept up, with the 
 exception of one or 
 two years, and these 
 omissions w^ere sup- 
 plied by the comparative tables of later years. The 
 circular of January, 1863, for example, gav^e the 
 returns of failures by States for each year from 18,57 
 to 1862. In each of these circulars the failure statistics 
 ware supplemented by brief reviews of business con- 
 
 74 
 
 Miliruukcc Office, established ISoS 
 This office occupies most of western half 
 of the third floor in the Wells Buildinu 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 mv\u III 
 
 ditions — reviews all the more valuable to the student 
 of the mercantile history of the period because they 
 were contemporary analyses made by men more than 
 ordinarily familiar 
 with the situation. 
 
 About 1869 the 
 annual circulars took 
 on a more uniform 
 style, the table being 
 placed on the first 
 page, and from one to 
 three previous years 
 being included for 
 purposes of com- 
 p a r i s o n — the com- 
 pilers realizing that 
 statistics covering a 
 single year would be 
 useless. On April 
 23rd, 1875, The Mer- 
 cantile Agency began 
 the publication o f 
 quarterly failure re- 
 turns, prefacing its 
 table for the first three months of 1875 with these 
 words : 
 
 The very general interest displayed by the public 
 in the "Statistics of Failures/' wliich we have hitherto 
 presented at the end of the year in our Annual Circular, 
 has induced us to devote special attention to the compila- 
 
 55 33 313! n 
 
 31 33 3]3lfj 
 
 31 3!i!!l 11 
 
 II liiin II 
 
 II ill! H I! 
 
 Tonnito OffiC' 
 
 ttdhlishcd 1858 
 
 Occupying about 4,000 square feet of floor 
 space in Dominion Bank Building 
 
 75 
 
S E A' E N T Y - F I Y E Y EARS OF 
 
 tion of tliese fiuiires, and, at the request of ])romincTit 
 commercial authorities, we will liereafter publish the 
 returns at the conclusion of each quarter of the year. 
 
 The senii-aiiiiiial returns for that year iiichided 
 a detailed reYiew of the business outlook, as did the 
 report coYering failures for the tliree-quarter period. 
 This practice has since been continued, and in 1884< 
 detailed reports regarding business conditions from 
 each of the branch offices in the United States and 
 Canada were included with the circular coYcring fail- 
 ures for the first six months of each year. On August 
 oth, 1893, Dux^s Reyiew was started, and these re- 
 ports of business conditions Avere made a weekly 
 feature, while failures were reported weekly and 
 monthly as well as by quarters and annually. In these 
 statistics names and indiYidual amounts are ncYcr 
 giYcn. 
 
 Through the leading press associations these fail- 
 ure statistics and the weekly summary of business 
 conditions throughout the country, as reported in 
 Dux^s Reyiew, are now telegraphed to more than 
 2,400 daily newspapers for their Saturday morning 
 editions. Altogether, including papers supplied di- 
 rect from the office of Dux's Reyiew, upwards of 
 2,670 publications in the United States and Canada 
 are now receiYing the figures regularly. At times 
 when business conditions in the United States are 
 deemed to be critical, these rcYiews of the situation 
 and failure statistics are frequently cabled to all of 
 the leading European capitals. 
 
 76 
 
CHAPTER I\ 
 
 The Development of The Mercantile 
 Agency's Reference Book 
 
 1859-1870 
 
 Ox IMay 1st, 1859, Benjamin Douglass sold his 
 entire interest in The ^Mercantile Agency to his part- 
 ner, Robert G. Dun, and retired from the business to 
 the upbuilding and development of which he had de- 
 voted all of his energies for thirteen years. But for 
 the work of JNIr. Douglass during this critical and 
 formative period of its history, it is altogether prob- 
 able that the institution founded by Lewis Tappan in 
 1841 would not have survived the fifties, if, indeed, 
 it had lived to enter that stormy decade. A credit 
 reporting agency that did not cover the South as well 
 as the Xorth and West would have been of very lim- 
 ited value to merchants, for the South was then the 
 nation's great buying region. Mr. Douglass gave the 
 Agency its foremost position in the South. He also 
 kept it in the vanguard with the pioneers who were 
 then pushing across the great central plain and out 
 into the West. He expanded The ^lercantile Agency 
 from an institution having only four small offices on 
 the Eastern seaboard into a nation-wide organization, 
 with a well developed extension in Canada and a suc- 
 
 77 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 cessful outpost in Europe. OF tlie nineteen of- 
 liees in operation in the year 18.59, sixteen were 
 in the United States, two in Cana(hi and one at 
 London, Enghuid. In the five years from 1854 to 18.59 
 alone the husiness had more than doubled, w^hile the in- 
 aun^uration of its annual compilation of failure sta- 
 tistics gave the Agency the prestige of being a na- 
 tional authority on a subject of vital interest to the 
 business community. More important still, by his un- 
 swerving loyalty to principle in the trial of 1851, Mr. 
 Douglass had won the confidence and respect of the 
 country and established the fact, once for all, that 
 the Agency could be im^Dlicitly relied upon to keep 
 inviolate the source of information given to it in con- 
 fidence. 
 
 Mr. Dun, who now^ became the sole pro2)rietor of 
 The Mercantile Agency, w^as at that time not quite 
 thirty-three years old. He possessed in a very high 
 degree the gift — much more valuable than genius — of 
 being able to surround himself with men of ability. 
 Instead of attempting, like his predecessors, to direct 
 the policies of the institution single-handed, he at 
 once organized an executive administration consisting 
 of four men — Charles Barlow, Robert B. Boyd, Mat- 
 thias B. Smith, and himself. Under that organization 
 the four associates, to all the world except themselves, 
 were partners — each having all the powers and liabil- 
 ities of a partner — but, between themselves, three of 
 them were without the rights of partners. Mr. Dun 
 continued to be the sole owner of everything connected 
 
 78 
 
The Mercantile A g e x c y 
 
 with the husiness which could be the subject of owner- 
 ship, and for the services of the other three he paid 
 
 From a painting by Benjamin Constant 
 
 ROBERT OR AH AM DUN 
 Sole jiroprietor of The Mercantile Agency of R. G. DUN tC- CO. 
 from lSo9 to 1900 — a period of forty-one years 
 
 sums of money which were measured by a percentage 
 of the profits. That plan Mr. Dun followed until his 
 
 79 
 
Sea^enty-five Years of 
 
 deatli. Tlie partners chanpred from time to time, but 
 as the nature of their rehition to liim always remained 
 the same, the business was protected from the dis- 
 ruptive effects which mit)'ht follow the dissolution of 
 a partnership in which the members had proprietary 
 rig'hts. 
 
 The great event of the year in which the change 
 in ownership just described took place was the pub- 
 lication of The jNIercantile Agency's first Reference 
 Book. This was issued February 1st, 1859, or three 
 months before ]Mr. Douglass relinquished his ow^ner- 
 ship. ]Mr. Douglass was strongly opposed to the idea 
 of a reference book as a key or indication as to the 
 nature of the Agency's reports by means of ratings. 
 He maintained that the sole business of The Mercan- 
 tile Agency should be to compile and issue reports, 
 and that a book of ratings would only be misleading 
 and tend to create trouble and dissatisfaction. The 
 fact that the first book was published while he was 
 still proprietor, however, w^ould seem to indicate that 
 he had either changed his views, or had agreed to allow 
 his successor to begin the task soon after the change 
 in ownership was agreed upon, and long before it was 
 carried into effect. 
 
 The first Reference Book was a quaint, old-fash- 
 ioned affair compared wdth those issued at present. It 
 was bound in dark brow^n sheepskin covers (nearly 
 red) extra strong and thick, and w^ith a lock, so that 
 the proprietor of the subscribing firm might retain a 
 key and thus keep its precious contents from the pry- 
 
 80 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 ing eyes of his subordinates or visitors. The volume 
 contained 519 pages, 10% inches high by 8% wide, 
 
 The first Reference Book issued by B. Douglass d Co., The 
 Mercantile Agency, in 1859 — showing the curious lock 
 to keep its contents from prying eyes 
 
 with a maximum of 42 names to a page ; an index to 
 cities and towns of two pages, and one of firm names, 
 
 81 
 
Sevexty-five Years of 
 
 aiTan<>'e(l alphabetically, of 43 pages. The title-page 
 read as follows ; 
 
 THE 
 
 MEECAXTILE AGEXCY'S 
 
 REFERENCE BOOK, 
 
 UNITED STATES .L\D BRITISH PROATvCES: 
 
 CONTAINING EATINGS 
 or iHB 
 
 PRIXCIPAL WHOLESALE MERCHANTS (TOGETHER WITH SOME 
 RETAILERS) AXD MAXTEACTURERS. 
 
 FOR THE YE^^lR 
 
 1859. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 B. DOUGLASS AND COMPANY, 
 1859. 
 
 Title-page of the first Rejercnce Book 
 An exact reproduction a little over one-third actual si::e 
 
 Xo less than four different ratings for each firm 
 were given: B. Douglass k Co.'s ratings (1) for 
 Bankers and Buyers of single-name paper; (2) for 
 
 82 
 
 314 BROADWAY. 
 
The Merc ax tile Agency 
 
 Commission ^Merchants; and (3) for Importers, Man- 
 ufacturers and Jobbers; and, lastly, a Summary of 
 Merchants' and Bankers' ratings. The top of a typi- 
 cal page is reproduced herewith showing these rat- 
 ings, or "markings," as they are called in the preface. 
 
 *66 ILLINOIS. 
 
 
 
 
 B. D. & Co. 'a Markings. 
 
 
 NAME. 
 
 BCSrSTESS. 
 
 LOCAnoX. 
 
 Ill 
 = it ^ 
 
 II 
 
 fr" - 
 
 
 If 
 
 1 Puller, Smith & Bishop, 
 
 Grocers. 
 
 Galena. 
 
 
 1 + 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 Fricke, Herman, 
 
 Jeweller. 
 
 do. 
 
 
 3 
 
 2] 
 
 3 
 
 3 Felt, Benj. F. 
 
 Grocer. 
 
 do. 
 
 3 
 
 2J . 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 4 Ferguson, Geo., 
 
 General Store. 
 
 
 3 
 
 2J 
 
 
 
 5 GraQt, S. S., 
 
 Leather. 
 
 
 3 
 
 2+ 
 
 2 
 
 
 Top of a page in the 1S59 Reference Book, the last line referring to 
 the tannery conducted hij Ulysses S. Grant, afterirard 
 President of the United States, under the name of Jiis father 
 
 In the front of the volume was pasted the 
 
 
 
 No. 1. Of long Ptandiajx: good antecedents; business (comparatively) devoid of hazard; ample means in, 
 
 and large wealth out of "business ; credii urdimiud^ 
 No. 1. Unquestioned. 
 
 Taking into view capital ; the nature 
 extent, and hazard of business; busi- 
 ness qualifications ; economy with past 
 success. &c. 
 
 n. Strong. 
 
 2. ' Good. 
 2i. Very fair. 
 
 3. Fair. 
 
 4. 
 
 + (plus) strengthens ; — (minu.?) weakens. 
 
 EXPLANATION OF ABREVIATIONS USED. 
 D. Dissolved. F. Failed- A. Assigaed- L. Liquidating, g. Suspended. 
 
 The reason for presenting four distinct, and oc- 
 casionally contradictory, ratings is explained at some 
 length in the preface, as follows: 
 
 83 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 ^^'c have prepared tliis work for certain classes of 
 our employers whose business interests have long de- 
 manded it. The labor and responsibility connected with 
 its faithful and impartial performance have liitherto 
 deterred us from the undertaking. Persuaded, liowever, 
 that aside from the obligation we owed our employers, 
 to promote and ])rotcct their interests in tliis our spe- 
 cialty, we should be greatly increasing the facilities for 
 transacting business, and conferring a benefit on the 
 community, we were led the more clieerfuUy to assume 
 the labor it involved. 
 
 Above the retailer there are five classes of business 
 men conducting the commerce of the world. Profit 
 determines the risks taken ; hence the standard of one is 
 not that of the other: a single classification, therefore, 
 would not suit the wants of all. We have found three 
 ratings necessary: one for Bankers, one for Commission 
 Merchants, and a third for the common benefit of 
 Importers, Manufacturers and Jobbers. 
 
 The Banker loans his money on interest. Having no 
 other consideration, it should be a fundamental principle 
 wuth him, in all cases to be secure. His judgment should 
 be rigid. The Commission Merchant, however, has 
 other inducements than that of interest on liis capital — 
 he has two commissions. His guarantee charge creates 
 a fund out of which to meet losses, not, however, suf- 
 ficient to justify much hazard; for which reason his 
 judgment should be highly conservative. But with the 
 Importer, Manufacturer and Jobber, under the stimulus 
 of good profits, a larger liberality is expected. Hold- 
 ing these views, we have adapted our markings 
 accordingly. 
 
 We have made them from a contemplation of all the 
 circumstances pertaining to each case. They are based 
 upon the historical facts upon our records, often running 
 back eighteen years, regarding the business training, 
 the moral and business fitness, the capital, the nature, 
 extent and hazards of business, &c. ; we have, more- 
 over, searched the records as to the condition of the real 
 estate of many parties. In the absence of knowledge of 
 this kind, there can be no accurate marking. 
 
 84 
 
The Mercaxtile Agency 
 
 In order to compreliend fully our views as to the 
 comparative merits of houses, the three markings should 
 be read in conjunction. They should act and re-act 
 upon one another. To those who Iiave a right to con- 
 sult us as to the details upon which our ratings are 
 founded, we shall be happy at all times to show cause 
 for our markings, where they differ from the opinion 
 generally entertained. 
 
 B. Douglass & Co. 
 
 The 1859 Reference Book contained altogether 
 20,268 names, apportioned among the various States 
 and the Canadian Provinces as follows: 
 
 Massachusetts 2,4-75 South Carolina 506 
 
 Maine 201 Georgia 348 
 
 New Hampshire. .. . 38 Alabama 221 
 
 Rhode Island 726 Tennessee 156 
 
 Vermont 16 Louisiana 690 
 
 Connecticut 437 ^lichigan 200 
 
 New York 6.340 Illinois 375 
 
 Ohio 1,334 Wisconsin 72 
 
 Pennsylvania 1.550 Iowa 227 
 
 New Jersey 187 Minnesota 75 
 
 Delaware 18 Nova Scotia 168 
 
 Maryland 840 New Brunswick 62 
 
 Virginia 585 Newfoundland 79 
 
 Kentucky 336 Prince Edward Island 56 
 
 ^Missouri 520 Canada East 551 
 
 North Carolina 40 Canada West 839 
 
 One jDerfect copy of the 1859 Reference Book, 
 with all the "points," as the hook collectors say, is 
 still in the possession of the Agency. It was originally 
 issued to Wrigley Sons & Boult, and has their name 
 embossed on the front cover. The archives also con- 
 tain the copy used by the Louisville office. It shows 
 evidence of hard use. The j^reface, list of cities, and 
 last page are gone, but on a series of blank pages inter- 
 
 85 
 
S A' ]<: X T Y - F I V E Y ears of 
 
 leaved between those of the book itself are some of the 
 oldest reports tliat liave come down to us in tlieir 
 original form. Human documents, they are, these 
 Soutliern pen pictures of the olden time — not dry- 
 as-dust records. Here is one that must have been 
 written by some Southern gentleman of the old school, 
 possibly a clerk of court or County Judge. It is re- 
 garding a party in IMonroe County, Georgia. Note 
 the quaint abbreviations to save time and ink: 
 
 Groc. & Confect. 
 
 Will phps. enlarge his bus. Owns but little ppy. 
 Is sol. steady & attent. to his bus. Considd hon. & 
 relia. His bus. has been done on a vy sml scale, so 
 much so as not to be kn. outsd of the village in wh. he 
 resides. If Cr. is given liim the reliance must be upon 
 his honor to pay — and I kn. of 00 / to impeach it. 
 
 From a circular bearing the date of December 
 20th, 1859, it appears that the second volume of the 
 Reference Book was issued in installments between 
 January 1st and February 1st, 1860. The circular 
 states : 
 
 We have now 17 branch offices, and when you con- 
 sider the great advantage we possess through constant 
 intercourse, by telegraph and otherwise, and that this 
 extended information furnished you is constantly 
 watched and revised and that you are daily notified of 
 all changes that come under our observation, we trust 
 you will appreciate both it and our efforts. 
 
 The first part of the volume, embracing all interests 
 connected with the Foreign and Home Commerce and 
 the Produce of the United States and British North 
 America, will be issued on the 1st of January, 1860. 
 The first edition will be necessarily limited, inasmuch as 
 the press will be employed to bring out the other parts 
 of the volume in due season. If you desire a copy of 
 
 86 
 
T H M E R C A N T I L E A G E N C Y 
 
 this first edition^ by early application at tlie office it can 
 be secured. 
 
 This part will be immediately followed by the other 
 interests, classified and sub-divided, and also the entire 
 volume, uniting' tlie whole and embracing the principal 
 merchants and corporate and manufacturing companies 
 in the United States and British North America. 
 
 The preface to the second vohinie refers briefly 
 to the favor with which the first had been received: 
 
 The unexampled appreciation of our former issue, 
 together with the solicitation of friends, has induced us 
 to publish a new, enlarged, and very much more com- 
 plete edition, embracing, with the exception of the 
 Pacific Coast, the entire Union and British North 
 America. 
 
 Each specific trade, together with all such branches 
 as perfectly harmonize in interest, form separate Parts. 
 These Parts we offer separately, or collectively, as may 
 be desired. This has been especially solicited to enable 
 the merchant to possess himself, at moderate cost, of 
 that in which he has a direct interest. For the con- 
 venience of bankers and others, we combine the dif- 
 ferent Parts, forming one whole volume. 
 
 It also announced one important change in the 
 list of ratings reported : 
 
 In our last we were induced to give the popular 
 trade-markings. These, in very many cases, were dis- 
 crepant, and many of our subscribers have mistaken 
 them for a condensation of our own, thereby creating 
 confusion. We therefore omit them in this issue. We 
 have, liowever, availed ourselves of numerous markings 
 obtained from the highest authorities, and closely 
 criticized and examined every case which conflicted with 
 our own. 
 
 In the second volume the pubhshers attempted 
 a most elaborate subdivision of traders into six groups 
 and, as announced in the circular quoted above, issued 
 
 87 
 
S E V E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 the work in six parts, bound separately, or in a general 
 book eoniprisin<j,' all six bound together. The arehives 
 contain copies of the 18()() ])()()k in both forms — even 
 the six separate parts having each its lock. (Five 
 of them, by the way, have been locked for the last fifty- 
 five years, and the keys lost.) The subdivisions intro- 
 duced into this edition were as follows : 
 
 PART I. — Shipping and Commission. Produce Com- 
 mission, Groceries, Drugs, Wines and 
 Liquors, Naval Stores, Flour Mills, 
 Ship Chandlers, Distillers, and all 
 otlier interests that iiarmonize there- 
 witli. 
 
 PART II.— Silk, Cotton and Woolen Goods, Clothing, 
 Carpets, Gentlemen's Furnisliings, 
 Laces, ]\Iillinery Goods, Upholstery, 
 Umbrellas, and all otlier interests that 
 harmonize therewith. 
 
 PART III. — Boots and Shoes, Findings, Tanners, 
 Hides and Leather, India Rubber 
 Goods, Trunks, Saddle and Harness 
 Makers, &c. 
 
 PART IV.^ — Hardware, Founders, Metals, House P\ir- 
 nishing Goods, Builders, Carriage, 
 Cabinet and Piano Forte Makers. Plan- 
 ing and Saw ]\Iills, Wooden Ware of all 
 Kinds, Coal, Lumber. Marble, and all 
 interests that harmonize therewith. 
 
 PART V. — Booksellers, Publishers and Stationers, 
 ]\Iusic Paper ^lanufacturers. Paper 
 Hangings and Printing Ink, Yankee 
 Notions, Toys and Foreign Pancy 
 Goods, Jewelers, Gold and Silver Man- 
 ufacturers, Crockery, China, Earthen- 
 ware, Glass Ware, Plate Glass, and all 
 interests that harmonize therewith. 
 
 PART VI. — Hats, Caps, Furs and Straw Goods. 
 
 88 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 Under the foregoing classifications the book com- 
 prised 768 Images, with approximately 30,720 names. 
 In addition to these it contained a list of private 
 bankers, on pages 769 to 785, of 558 names. This 
 plan of subdividing the book into separate lists proved 
 to be impracticable, as many traders could not be 
 clearly classified, even under this elaborate scheme. 
 It was therefore discontinued after the second volume, 
 as the following extract from the preface to the 1861 
 book shows: 
 
 The favor with which our Reference Book has been 
 received, induces us to continue its publication. 
 
 The present edition is not subdivided into classified 
 trades as was our last ; nor does it contain the names of 
 that class of small traders a credit to whom can more 
 safely be given by consulting our records. We have 
 adapted the present work to that class of merchants who 
 grant credit as bankers, money-lenders, and wholesale 
 dealers. 
 
 The 1861 edition was somewhat smaller than that 
 for 1860, comprising 639 pages and about 25,560 
 names. In this book the Key to Ratings was changed 
 quite materially, and as the gradual development of 
 this feature of the early Reference Book is a matter 
 of considerable interest to all grantors of credit, the 
 Key is reproduced in full on page 90. 
 
 After the publication of the Reference Book for 
 1861, just described, the Civil War interrupted this 
 important branch of The ^lercantile Agency's activ- 
 ities for a period of three years. In 1864, probably in 
 the latter part of the year, the publication of the work 
 
 89 
 
Seventy - FIVE Years of 
 
 was resumed. Tlie earliest edition bears upon its 
 title-page the date 18()4-\5 and states that it was 
 
 SSI 
 
 Al, Of long standing ; good antecedents ; business (comparatively) devoid of bazard ; 
 ample means in, and large wedUh out of business ; credit unUmited. 
 
 1 + 
 1 
 
 1- 
 
 Strong, 
 
 2- 
 2i 
 
 3 + 
 
 3 
 
 3- 
 
 3i. 
 
 Good, 
 
 Taking into view capital ; the na- 
 ture, extent, and hazard of business ; 
 business qualifications ; economy with 
 Fair, V T past success, &c. 
 
 Limited, or undesirable, 
 
 + ( Plus ) strengthens ; — ( Minus ) weakens. 
 
 EXPLAHATION OF ABBBEVIATIONS USED. 
 D. Dissolved F. Failed. A. Assigned. L. Liquidating. S. Suspended 
 
 Facsimile of the Key to Ratings as it appeared in the 1861 
 Reference Book. This Key was a marked improre- 
 ment orer its predecessors 
 
 entered for copyright in the year 1864. The following 
 extract from the preface explains the discontinuance 
 of publication caused by the war and the new Key to 
 Ratings, which here appears for the first time: 
 
 The publication of the "Mercantile Agency Refer- 
 ence Book" was discontinued three years ago, in conse- 
 quence of the unsettled condition of commercial interests 
 incident to civil war. In the sudden and ever-varying 
 clianges, affecting all branches of trade, no "ratings" 
 could be made that would be of any permanent value. 
 The detailed reports upon our Records, posted from day 
 
 90 
 
The JNIercantile Agency 
 
 to day, seemed to offer the only reliable aid, and we pre- 
 ferred to rest our reputation upon these, rather than 
 issue a Book of Ratings in which we ourselves could 
 have but little confidence. Latterly, however, business 
 matters having assumed a greater degree of permanence, 
 or a more fixed adaptation to the times, and our sub- 
 scribers having urged us to a resumption of the work, 
 we have concluded to renew its publication, confidently 
 relying upon the mercantile community for proper ap- 
 preciation and commensurate support. 
 
 The "Key" upon which the ratings are made is en- 
 tirely our own, and has valuable original features, which 
 we commend to particular observation. It not only 
 shows tchat the mercantile credit of the trader is, but 
 also why it is. In other words, it shows how far the con- 
 clusions as to mercantile credit are based upon the pos- 
 session of capital, as well as how far personal and busi- 
 ness qualities have been considered in the absence of 
 capital. It must be obvious that this peculiar adaptation 
 of the key affords an excellent opportunity for nice dis- 
 crimination. It is only through the copious details fur- 
 nished by our Records that such an idea can be acted 
 upon. 
 
 This book contained 33 pages of ratings for Xew 
 York City and Brooklyn, comprising about 8,000 
 names ; and some 550 pages for the rest of the United 
 States, comprising approximately 115,000 names, or 
 123,000 altogether. The hsts for the Southern States 
 were very meagre, that for Louisiana, for example, 
 consisting only of the city of New Orleans, while 
 the list for Alabama was confined to the city of Mo- 
 bile. The fact that any lists at all for these States 
 were included at this early date speaks volumes for the 
 energy and enterprise of the publishers. The Key 
 alluded to in the last paragraph of the preface, was 
 as follows: 
 
 91 
 
S E V E X r Y - F I y E Y e a r s o y 
 
 I 
 
 PECUNIARY STRENGTH 
 
 A1 + S1,000,000 or over. 
 
 Al 500,000 to 1,000,000 
 
 1 250,000 to 500,000 
 [ li 100,000 to 250,000 
 
 2 50,000 to 100,000 
 2^ 25,000 to 50,000 
 
 3 10,000 to 25,000 
 8^ 5,000 to 10,000 
 
 The first Kei/ in ichich the present si/stem of "markinns'' was adopted. 
 Although since greatly improved and extended, this Key is 
 the prototype of all its successors 
 
 In tlie 1864 edition the name of the puhhshers 
 appears as R. G. Dux & Co. for the first time, the 
 style for 1859 having been B. Douglass & Co. and for 
 1860 and 1861, Dun, Boyd & Co. On August 1st, 
 1864, the Montreal office published a special Refer- 
 ence Book for the British Provinces in pocket size, 
 the pages being 4 inches wide by 6% high. This book 
 contained 494 pages and about 14,000 names, and was 
 evidently sold to subscribers in the United States 
 who desired Canadian ratings, as well as to those in 
 Canada, as these ratings were omitted from the gen- 
 eral reference books above described. The Key in 
 the Canadian book was substantially the same as the 
 one printed in the general Reference Book, except 
 that in the left-hand column the figure 4 was added, 
 to indicate pecuniary strength between $2,000 and 
 $5,000. A second edition of the Canadian book was 
 issued August 25th, 1865, with approximately 16,250 
 names. 
 
 92 
 
 KEY. 
 
 GENERAL CREDIT. 
 
 'Right-h»nd colamn.) 
 
 Unlimited 
 High 
 
 Good 
 Fair 
 
 Inquire at our Office.^ 
 
The ]M e r c a X t I l e A g e x c y 
 
 The Reference Book for January, 1866, was sub- 
 stantially like that for 1865, except that the Key 
 contained a 4 in the left-hand column, as in the 
 Canadian books. This edition contained approxi- 
 mately 16,250 names for Xew York City and Brook- 
 lyn, and about 135,500 for the rest of the United 
 States. The editions of 1864, 1865 and 1866 had 
 brown leather backs, like those of the earlier editions, 
 but green cloth sides similar to the ones used now. 
 
 On July 1st, 1866, a second edition of the Refer- 
 ence Book for that year was published, and the 
 announcement made that thereafter the work would 
 be issued semi-annually. In this volume the Southern 
 States were fully reported for the first time since the 
 war — the earlier volume for 1866 containing only the 
 principal cities. The nmnber of names in this volume 
 was approximately 200,000. This edition was very 
 favorably received by the leading Xew York journals, 
 as the following interesting extracts from their notices 
 of that year show : 
 
 From the Xeiv York Express. — The information 
 which this work contains is of great interest and value, 
 and its reliability thoroughly guaranteed by the fact 
 that nearly all our leading merchants and bankers have 
 for years liberally sustained this Agency. 
 
 From the Financial Chronicle. — This volume is a 
 very remarkable one, whether regarded in the light of 
 usefulness to the business community or of the labor 
 and research of which it is the result. It contains a 
 statement of the capital of almost every business man 
 in the United States, with an indication of the general 
 credit of each individual. The labor necessary to obtain 
 this information must have been very great, since there 
 
 93 
 
S E y E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 are in tlic book Two Hundred Thousand names, eacli of 
 M'hich, of course, has to be the subject of special investi- 
 gation. Messrs. Dun & Co. have long been engaged in 
 this business and their reports have proved to be so re- 
 liable that they have won the confidence of the com- 
 mercial community. 
 
 From the Nexc York Daily Tribune. — "The Mercan- 
 tile Agency" is an institution whicli has been in success- 
 ful operation in this city during the last twenty-five 
 years. . . . Tlie talents, energy and enterprise uni- 
 formly displayed in its various managements, have 
 brought Tlie Mercantile Agency to a magnitude and im- 
 portance that could scarcely have been conceived of by 
 the ^Messrs. Tappan, its original founders. The "Refer- 
 ence Book" is put forth as an important auxiliary to tlie 
 general business of the office. It is a brief synopsis of 
 the information which is spread out, in detail, upon the 
 Records of the Agency^ and which, in many cases, runs 
 back through the entire period of twenty-five years. 
 The book is evidently the result of immense labor and 
 of a large outlay of capital. . . . As we turn over 
 its pages we can determine, at a glance, the commercial 
 strength and importance of each town and city, but, 
 when the objects of its publication are taken into ac- 
 count, and regarded in the light of its advantages to 
 the banking, mercantile and manufacturing interests, its 
 value becomes incalculable, for it contains what could 
 not be gathered from any other source. 
 
 P>om the Journal of Commerce. — Considering the 
 work in all its bearings, as a succinct statement of capi- 
 tal employed in the various branches of trade, and of 
 the general condition of mercantile credit, also showing 
 at a glance the relative commercial importance of towns 
 and cities (thereby affording bankers and merchants 
 essential aid in determining the extent of their credits), 
 we cannot but esteem this Reference Book as a business 
 publication of the highest value, and no doubt it will be 
 regarded as a standard work by the mercantile com- 
 munity. 
 
 From the Banker's Magazine. — This is a remarkable 
 work in many respects. It contains tlie names of nearly 
 every mercliant, manufacturer and trader in the United 
 
 94< 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 States, some 200,000 in number, to which are attached 
 figures indicating the capital and credit standing of each 
 person. The labor expended in ascertaining this in- 
 formation must have been immense. It has necessitated 
 the employment of an army of reporters, travelers, cor- 
 respondents and clerks, and is, doubtless, as the pub- 
 lishers say, the result of the closest application and 
 observation for a great many years. . . . The sys- 
 tem of marking or rating is peculiar to the Agency, and 
 is manifestly superior to any other method yet originated 
 in its definiteness and simplicity. . . .If Messrs. 
 R. G. Dun & Co. were not thoroughly satisfied as to the 
 general reliability of their information, they would 
 hardly be bold enough to issue such a book as this, and 
 place it in the hands of the entire trade. Indeed, the 
 Agency is now almost universally acknowledged essen- 
 tial to any business in which even short credits are an 
 element. We commend this volume to our mercantile 
 and banking friends in the city and country. 
 
 Similar comments were also published in the 
 New York Times and the New York Evening Post — 
 the entire series forming a very interesting and re- 
 markable group of contemporary opinions as to the 
 merits of the book and the care and thoroughness 
 with which it had been compiled. 
 
 In 1867, or soon afterward, the appearance of 
 the Reference Book was considerably changed. The 
 editions in the late sixties were bound in green cloth 
 covers, but by the early seventies the publishers had 
 adopted the red leather backs and corners and the 
 green cloth sides that have been a feature of every 
 subsequent edition and are now famihar w^ierever 
 The Mercantile Agency's Reference Book is known. 
 The January, 1867, issue contained 225,000 names 
 and included Canada, for the first time since the war, 
 
 95 
 
S E \ E N T Y - F I V E Y E A K S () ¥ 
 
 the Canadian books havinfy previously been published 
 in the small pocket size adopted in 1804. This edition 
 also had a list of the national banks of the Ignited 
 States established between 18()3 and 1866. The total 
 number of ratings in the July book was approximately 
 300,000. 
 
 During 1868 the growth of the book continued, 
 J anuary l>eing considerably larger than the previous 
 July, while the edition for July, 1868, was stated in 
 the preface to contain "very nearly Four Hundred 
 Thousand Xames and Ratings, comprising almost 
 every person engaged in Mercantile or INIanufactur- 
 ing Pursuits throughout the Union and Provinces." 
 In this issue a most important change w^as made in 
 the Key by substituting capital letters for figures in 
 tlie left-hand column. The reason for the change is 
 stated in the preface as follows : "We found not unfre- 
 quently that these figures led to confusion in the 
 minds of Subscribers, many of whom failed to com- 
 prehend that the same character in different columns, 
 had an entirely different signification. In order, 
 therefore, to make our system of marking more 
 definite, we have substituted letters in the first colunm, 
 by which we convey Estimates of Capital, retaining 
 the Figures in the second column, by which we convey 
 Indications of Credit." As this important change 
 made the left-hand column substantially what it 
 is to-day, the Key, as it appears in the July, 1868, 
 book, is reprinted herewith in full just as it then ap- 
 peared : 
 
 96 
 
The M e r c a n t I I- e Agency 
 
 f «jl to ^tft-giaml €ohmn. to Pght-iand €ehmvi. 
 
 PECUNIARY STRENGTH. 
 
 GENERAL CREDIT. 
 
 A+ (A1+) 
 
 Over $1,000,000 
 
 (Al). 
 (1) 
 
 (11; 
 
 (2) 
 
 (2i) 
 
 (3) 
 
 (30 
 
 (4) 
 
 Over 
 
 - Over 
 Over 
 
 - Over 
 Over 
 
 - Over 
 Over 
 Over 
 
 500,000 
 250,000 
 100,000 
 50,000 
 25,000 
 10,000 
 5,000 
 2,000 
 
 Less than 2,000 
 
 Al, 
 
 2 ] 
 
 21 [ 
 
 - Unlimited. 
 
 High. 
 
 Good. 
 
 Fair. 
 
 From 1869 onward the number of ratings in the 
 Reference Book increased steadily year by year, the 
 only notable decrease for many years being in 1873, 
 when the first book issued did not appear until Feb- 
 ruary, owing to a fire in the printing plant. How 
 promptly and effectively this emergency was met is 
 thus described in the preface to that volume: 
 
 Within thirty clear working days a feat in typog- 
 raphy has been performed^ which, if we mistake not, has 
 never been equaled in this or any other country. It has 
 been accomplished only by combining the facilities of 
 eight of the largest printing establishments of the 
 country — one in Philadelphia, one in Boston and six in 
 New York, who, with type founders, papermakers and 
 bookbinders, have done their utmost to aid us in our 
 emergency. 
 
 The back of the title-page contains the list of 
 plants at which the book was printed, as follows: 
 
 Printed in part by J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 
 Pa.; H. O. Houghton & Co., Cambridge, Mass.; D. 
 Appleton & Co., Pool & IVIcLaughlin & Co., David H. 
 Gildersleeve, Francis Hart & Co., Wynkoop & Hallen- 
 beck, S, W. Green, and Dun. Barlow & Co., all of 
 New York. 
 
 97 
 
S E V E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 In this edition the shape of the hook was some- 
 what altered, tlie pages heing made wider, so as to 
 accomnuxhite four cohimns of names instead of three, 
 and somewhat longer, with the result that a page of 
 solid matter in the 1873 hook contained .584 names as 
 compared with 399 in the smaller size previously 
 issued. The July, 1873, hook w^as printed entirely in 
 the firm's own printing plant, and beginning with 
 that issue it was announced that the Reference Book 
 would thereafter be issued four times a year — in 
 January, March, July and September. 
 
 As it w^ould be tedious to describe in detail each 
 of the many Reference Books issued from the early 
 seventies down to the present time, the following table 
 has been prepared to show at a glance the steady 
 progress from year to year in the number of ratings 
 printed. For the sake of completeness the table 
 includes all years from 18.59 to 1916: 
 
 Year Number 
 
 1859 20,268 
 
 1860 31,278 
 
 1861 25,560 
 
 1862. ..not issued 
 1863 . . .not issued 
 
 1864 123,000 
 
 1865 123,000 
 
 1866 141,750 
 
 1867 225,000 
 
 1868 350,000 
 
 1869 400,000 
 
 1870 430,573 
 
 1871 486,023 
 
 1872 532,000 
 
 1873 525,000 
 
 1874 594,189 
 
 1875 641,239 
 
 1876 680,072 
 
 1877 691,154 
 
 1878 713,420 
 
 Year 
 
 Number 
 
 1879, , 
 
 737,804 
 
 1880 
 
 764,000 
 
 1881 
 
 806,000 
 
 1882 
 
 848,000 
 
 1883 
 
 890,000 
 
 1884, , 
 
 933,159 
 
 1885 
 
 982,993 
 
 1886. . 
 
 , ..1,025,000 
 
 1887. . 
 
 , ..1,071,055 
 
 1888. . 
 
 , ..1,103,299 
 
 1889. . 
 
 . ..1,135,036 
 
 1890. . 
 
 , ..1,176,988 
 
 1891. . 
 
 , ..1,203,516 
 
 1892. . 
 
 , ..1,239,424 
 
 1893. . 
 
 , ..1,294,786 
 
 1894. . 
 
 , ..1,299,091 
 
 1895. . 
 
 , ..1,298,169 
 
 1896. . 
 
 , ..1,320,251 
 
 1897. . 
 
 , ..1,248,298 
 
 1898. . 
 
 , ..1,251,314 
 
 Year Number 
 
 1899. . ..1,241,591 
 
 1900. . ..1,285,816 
 
 1901. . ..1,291,892 
 
 1902. . ..1,309,410 
 
 1903. . ..1,382,640 
 
 1904. . ..1,422,048 
 
 1905. . ..1,443,241 
 
 1906. . ..1,483,579 
 
 1907. . ..1,524,383 
 
 1908. . ..1,554,431 
 
 1909. . ..1,587,977 
 
 1910. . ..1,632,460 
 
 1911. . ..1,670,825 
 
 1912. . ..1,705,952 
 
 1913. . ..1,797,401 
 
 1914. . ..1,816,737 
 
 1915. . ..1,844,506 
 
 1916. ..*1,882,226 
 1916. ..tl,899,490 
 * January, t July. 
 
 98 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 Among the more noteworthy changes and 
 improvements effected in the Reference Books since 
 1874, the following merit special mention. In the 
 January, 1877, book the Key was again changed, the 
 left-hand cokmin being considerably extended, while 
 in the right-hand column the word "Unlimited" was 
 changed to "Very High." 
 
 EXPLANATOKY KEY 
 
 TO THE 
 
 LEJT-HAND COLTOiN. 
 
 ESTIMATED PCCUNIAHY ^TREMGTH: 
 
 Aa - - f 1,000,000 or over. 
 A+ - - - 750,000 or over. 
 
 A - - - 500,000 to $750,000 
 jB+ - - - 300,000 to 500,000 
 
 B - - - - 150,000 to 300,000 
 O - - - 75,000 to 150,000 
 
 D - - - - 40,000 to 75,000 
 B - - - 20,000 to 40,000 
 
 F - - - 10,000 to 20,000 
 
 G - - 5,000 to 10,000 
 
 H - - - - 2,000 to 5,000 
 K - • 1,000 to 2,000 
 
 L - - - - to 1,000 
 
 RIGHT-HAND COLUMN. 
 
 GENERAL CREDIT. 
 
 Al 
 
 Very High. 
 
 High. 
 
 Good. 
 
 Fair. 
 
 The absence or a JKating indicates tUo?« whose business and investments render it difficult to rate them 
 satisfactorily to ourselves. We therefore prefer, in justice to these, to give oar detailed report on record at ■out 
 offices. 
 
 The present Key is considerably more elaborate 
 than this, containing 17 symbols, instead of 13, to indi- 
 cate pecuniary strength ; and 48, as compared with 7, 
 to indicate general credit. In its main principles, 
 however, it is the same as the one printed above, so that 
 no further allusion to this topic will be necessary. 
 
 In the book for January, 1880, the size was once 
 more increased to accommodate five columns of names 
 
 99 
 
S E y E X T Y - ¥ I A' E Y E A R S () 1' 
 
 and ratings to a page. In this book, also, estimates of 
 population were inserted for the first time under the 
 name of the town Avith an indieation as to whether it 
 was a banking town and if not, the name of the most 
 convenient banking town. In addition to 41,500 post 
 offices this book contained the names of every railroad 
 station throughout the United States and Canada, or 
 65,000 j^laces in all, together with the delivering 
 express company at each station. In the March, 1886, 
 book appeared the first installment of a series of State 
 maps, the preface stating that "the need of a ready 
 reference to the immediate locality of places and their 
 geographical location, in shipping goods and in corre- 
 spondence, is constantly being sought by merchants 
 and those who are dispensing credit." This valuable 
 feature has been continued ever since both for the 
 United States and Canada. In March, 1885, the 
 Reference Book for the first time contained symbols 
 to indicate classifications of trade, a Key on the inside 
 of the front cover explaining the system. This plan 
 proved to be a very great success and has since been a 
 feature of all Reference Books published by The Mer- 
 cantile Agency. 
 
 The early Canadian Reference Books, published 
 by the Montreal and later by the Toronto offices, be- 
 ginning in 1864, may be looked upon as the first 
 pocketbooks in the history of the Agency. These 
 have been continued in pocket size, ever since, although 
 after 1867 the Canadian names were also printed in 
 the large Reference Books as well. Beginning in the 
 
 100 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 early seventies, the first pocketbooks covering por- 
 tions of the United States were issued, and the series 
 has been continually enlarged until, at present, it 
 comprises 56 books altogether, covering every State 
 separately and also the cities of Chicago, Boston, St. 
 Louis, New York and Philadelphia. 
 
 When it is considered that the present Reference 
 Book contains close to one million, nine hundred thou- 
 sand names, as compared with twenty thousand in the 
 edition of 1859, it will readily be realized that the com- 
 pilation, printing and publishing of so huge a book 
 four times a year is a task of extraordinary magnitude 
 and complexity. This department of The Mercantile 
 Agency has been developed to a very high degree of 
 efficiency. The Reference Book to-day is printed with 
 all possible despatch and, by a carefully prepared 
 system, all changes occurring throughout the United 
 States and Canada are made up to a few minutes 
 of the closing of a particular State, Territory or Prov- 
 ince. In a great many cases, where changes are of 
 special importance, they are made while the other 
 portions of the same State, Territory, or Province 
 are being printed. This necessitates personal and 
 experienced supervision, but no task is deemed too 
 arduous for this all-important work. In less than 
 eight hours after the complete book has been printed 
 several hundred copies have already been bound, 
 boxed, shipped and are on the fast express trains tak- 
 ing them to the leading distributing centers through- 
 out the districts for which they are destined. 
 
 101 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 While the table on pcige 98 shows the steady 
 increase in the number of names in the various 
 Reference Books from 1859 down to the present time, 
 it really conveys a very inadequate conception of the 
 enormous amount of labor and detail involved in the 
 preparation and publication of these great volumes. 
 From the standpoint of increase in the number of 
 ratings alone a more instructive comparison would be 
 by decades, as follows : 
 
 Year Number of Names Increase 
 
 1859 20 268 
 
 1868 350,000 Increase over 1859 329,732 
 
 1878 713,420 " " 1868 363,420 
 
 1888 1,103,299 " " 1878 389,879 
 
 1898 1,251,314 " " 1888 148,015 
 
 1908 1,554,383 " " 1898. .. .303,069 
 
 1916 (eight years) 1,882,226 " " 1908 327,843 
 
 Even this table does not adequately represent the 
 amount of w^ork accomplished, because the net 
 increases do not indicate how many names were 
 obliterated, or the number of corrections made in 
 ratings, firm styles, or in the bank list. 
 
 This is clearly shown in the following table, which 
 gives the total number of annual changes made during 
 the last five calendar years: 
 
 1911. 1912. 1913. 1914. 191.5. 
 
 New names inserted 392,293 404.857 417. 0G5 416,347 407,072 
 
 Names obliterated. 348.332 345,008 359,054 374,230 377,246 
 Changes in ratings 
 
 and styles 381,701 396.260 434,350 449,443 441,126 
 
 Alterations in bank 
 
 list 04,621 65,909 74,414 79,845 85,081 
 
 Total number of 
 
 Changes 1,186,947 1,212,694 1,285,483 1,319,865 1,310,525 
 
 Average for each 
 
 business day.. 3,916 3,989 4.214 4,356 4,325 
 
 In other words, while the net gain between the 
 January Reference Book of 1911 and that for 
 
 102 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 January, 1916 — five years later — was 123,578 names, 
 the total number of changes of all kinds made during 
 these years amounted to 6,315,514, or three and one- 
 half times the average number of names in the Refer- 
 ence Book during this period. In order to keep pace 
 with the steady increase in this immense amount of 
 detail work, the Printing Department has had to be 
 successively enlarged several times, and particulars 
 1 egarding the present modern and up-to-date printing 
 house and bindery of The Mercantile Agency will be 
 found in the last chapter of this book. The preceding 
 sketch of the history of the Reference Book has been 
 brought down to date at this point as a matter of con- 
 venience, thus avoiding the repetition that would be 
 involved in tracing its progress and growth from 
 decade to decade since it was first established fifty- 
 seven years ago. 
 
 From 1859 to 1865 no new branch offices of The 
 Mercantile Agency were established — the only period 
 in the history of the institution when more than three 
 years elapsed without witnessing a single extension of 
 the Agency's chain. The reason was, of course, the 
 Civil War, which retarded the nation's industrial and 
 commercial growth for five years. In 1865 the 
 styles of the Baltimore and Richmond offices — which 
 were originally opened as J. D. Pratt & Co. — were 
 changed to R. G. Dun & Co., thus making the 
 firm style of all the offices of The Mercantile Agency 
 in the United States R. G. Dun & Co.^ with the ex- 
 ception of the Boston district. On January 1st, 1866, 
 
 103 
 
S E A E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S O ¥ 
 
 Erastiis Winian, then oeneral iiiana<)er in Canada, 
 was called to Xew York and succeeded to the position 
 formerly occupied hy Rohert B. Boyd, who retired in 
 the early sixties. AVhile tlie volume of its business was 
 greatly reduced during the Civil War, prudent man- 
 agement enabled the Agency to pass through that 
 critical period success- 
 fully, and now that 
 peace w a s restored 
 the expansion of 
 the organization was 
 quickly resumed. In 
 1866 an office was 
 opened at Buffalo, 
 then a city of less than 
 70,000 inhabitants. 
 The first manager of 
 the new branch asked 
 for $300 for expenses, 
 and with this small 
 sum put it on a self- 
 supporting basis. He 
 made the trip from 
 Schenectady to Buf- 
 falo on foot, carrying a Reference Book under his 
 arm in order to show it to merchants along the way 
 — the long tramj) resulting in quite a number of 
 subscribers. In 1867, despite the commercial pros- 
 tration of the South, an office was opened at IMemphis, 
 Tenn., a convincing evidence of the firm's faith in the 
 
 104 
 
 Buffalo Office, established 1866 
 The offiee at present occupies the entire 
 (/round floor of the Dun Buildin;/ 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 recuperative powers of that section. Memphis at that 
 time was hardly more than a fair-sized country town, 
 and the territory reported was largely forest and 
 plantation property, with dirt roads, over which travel 
 was necessarily by horseback. 
 
 In 1868 four new offices were established — the 
 largest number for a single year in the history of the 
 Agency down to that time. At Portland, Maine, 
 E. Russell & Co., of Boston, established a branch to 
 
 take care of their sub- 
 scribers in that State, 
 as well as to give more 
 thorough work in re- 
 porting. The business 
 of The Mercantile 
 Agency in Canada 
 was greatly stimu- 
 lated as a result of 
 Confederation, which 
 took place in 1867, 
 and the energy with 
 which merchants at Montreal, Toronto and Quebec 
 extended their trade into all parts of Nova Scotia 
 and New Brunswick — which were then united with 
 the Dominion — necessitated a new office at Halifax, 
 N. S., in 1868, while one was opened at St. John, 
 N. B., three 3^ears later. At that time the principles 
 and objects of The Mercantile Agency were little 
 understood in the maritime provinces, and for a time 
 there was some misunderstanding as to the purposes of 
 
 Albdiltl OJjirc, (xtabli.sJted ISiiH 
 
 A portion of the main office, on the sixth 
 floor of the Hun Building 
 
 105 
 
Seventy - FIVE Years of 
 
 the institution. The Hahfax office lias kept a scrap- 
 book from the date of its estabhshnient to the 
 present time, which contains many of the early 
 criticisms, and also editorials by leading jom'nals 
 retracting wliat had been said and commending 
 the Agency after they had come to know it more 
 thoroughly. The other offices opened in 1868 
 were Toledo, Ohio, and Albany, X. Y. 
 
 In April, 1869, an 
 office was established 
 at San Francisco — the 
 first branch of The 
 Mercantile Agency 
 west of the Rocky 
 Mountains. The ter- 
 ritory included in the 
 San Francisco district 
 was a vast empire, em- 
 bracing the present 
 States of California, 
 Nevada, Utah, jNIon- 
 tana, Oregon and 
 Washington, together 
 
 with British Columbia. At the outset, the recep- 
 tion accorded to the new enterprise was discourag- 
 ing. The majority of the principal merchants at San 
 Francisco felt that the Agency could be of little 
 benefit to them since their credit customers were 
 made up chiefly of what they called "support 
 accounts." Bv this thev meant that their customers 
 
 Halifax Office, established 1S6S 
 Where the firm uoic oeeui))/ rooms on the 
 tJiird floor of the Roi/al Bank Building 
 
 106 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 were practically controlled by them, and that they 
 knew all about their financial affairs. This situation 
 was one that, with local modifications, confronted the 
 managers of the pioneer offices of The Mercantile 
 Agency in all parts of the West and Southwest. It 
 could only be met by i^roving to the satisfaction of 
 
 the leaders in each 
 community that the 
 inf ormation secured 
 by the new institution 
 w^as better and more 
 complete than they 
 themselves possessed, 
 even about their own 
 customers. By reason 
 of its disinterested 
 position the Agency 
 often ascertained facts 
 that the wholesale 
 houses, being inter- 
 ested parties, never 
 learned. The thorough 
 
 The present office is on the third floor of J j. j.' 
 
 tJie Insurance Exchange Building aud SystcmatlC man- 
 
 ner in which it col- 
 lected and verified its data proved to be a great 
 improvement over the usual practice of the banking 
 and trading houses of those days, and it was not 
 long before influential firms, which had at first 
 held aloof, voluntarily became subscribers, and have 
 
 Illllii" 
 
 San Fi-inirisro Office, e-'^tahlishcd 1S6'J 
 
 107 
 
S E y E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S O F 
 
 ever since continued to be its loyal friends. At San 
 Francisco, and at the various other pioneer offices in 
 the vast re^-ion beyond the ^Mississippi now being 
 rapidly opened up for settlement, the Agency won its 
 way by demonstrating the value of its service, and 
 accepting any tests that those most familiar with local 
 conditions cared to ap- 
 ply as to the accuracy 
 of its information. 
 Many of the minor 
 offices in the more 
 sparsely settled por- 
 tions of this region 
 have never been self- 
 supporting, but have 
 been maintained at a 
 loss year after year in 
 order to provide the 
 mercantile community 
 at the larger trad- 
 ing centers with the 
 prompt and reliable 
 information w^ithout 
 which credit business 
 in those localities would be impossible. 
 
 One other office was established in 1869, at Nor- 
 folk, Va., and two in 1870— at Rochester, N. Y., and 
 Hartford, Conn. Each of these branches gave the 
 organization an extension in territory where its ser- 
 
 108 
 
 Rochester Office, csiahlished 1870 
 At present occupijing the east half oj 
 the fifth floor of the Insurance BuUdinu 
 
The M e r c a n t i l e Agency 
 
 vices were needed — that at Hartford, for example, 
 resulting in the opening of new suboffices in quick 
 succession at Providence, New Haven and Spring- 
 field, Mass., early in the next decade. 
 
 Altogether, during the period from 1859 to 1870, 
 ten new branches of the Agency were established — an 
 excellent showing considering the profound disturb- 
 ance to the nation's 
 mercantile activities 
 occasioned by the war. 
 The most notable 
 achievement of these 
 eleven years, however, 
 was the inaugura- 
 tion of the Reference 
 Book, which by the 
 close of the period was 
 firmly established as 
 an indispensable ad- 
 junct to credit trans- 
 actions in every part 
 of the United States 
 and Canada. 
 The extension of the service of the Agency to the 
 Pacific coast during this troubled period is also of in- 
 terest, especially as the opening of the San Francisco 
 office preceded the completion of the first transconti- 
 nental railway, which was then slowly creeping up to 
 the summit of the Rockies from both sides. By the close 
 of 1870 The Mercantile Agency had entirely recov- 
 
 109 
 
 Hartford Office, established 1870 
 Occupi/ing half of the third floor of the 
 Hartford Life Insurance Biiildinf/ 
 
S E V E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 ered from the retarding influences of tlie war and was 
 ready to keep pace with the swift development of the 
 nation's vast natural resources that followed the open- 
 ing of millions of fertile acres to settlement as new 
 railways advanced into the interior in every direction. 
 
 110 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 The Agency Keeps Pace With the Nation's 
 
 Growth 
 
 1871-1890 
 
 The fourth and fifth decades in the history of 
 The Mercantile Agency were periods of unexampled 
 expansion, no less than fifty new offices being 
 established between 1871 and 1880, and forty-eight 
 between 1881 and 1890. Of these, ninety were 
 in the United States, four in Canada, three in 
 Europe and one in Australia, so that the most 
 noteworthy feature of these years was the enormous 
 extension of the organization within the United 
 States. The opening of these new branches came 
 about in two ways. Many of them were decided upon 
 by the executive administration at New York for the 
 purpose of carrying the service of the Agency into 
 regions where it had previously been little known. 
 Others were started by the district managers — with 
 the consent of the New York executives — as sub- 
 offices to enable them to give more prompt and effi- 
 cient service in the territory under their control. In 
 each case the new offices were the Agency's response 
 to the fast-growing requirements of the business com- 
 munity throughout the United States, and the in- 
 crease in their number from 28 to 126 in two decades 
 
 111 
 
S E A' i: X T Y - F I V E Y A K S C) 1' 
 
 shows how closely tlie institution kept pace with the 
 nation's "rowth. 
 
 Until 1870 tlie paralyzing influence of the great 
 war was still felt in all branches of the country's indus- 
 trial and mercantile activities. Kailroad building, 
 whicli had been advancing apace during the fifties, 
 practically ceased from 1861 to 1865, and was resumed 
 haltingly and slowly. Capital found its way back into 
 the channels of trade timidly at first. Then, with a 
 sudden wave of the optimism that in America seems 
 to be more buoyant and all-pervading than anywhere 
 else, the great nation, reunited, started on its forward 
 course. The completion of the flrst transcontinental 
 railroad on May 10th, 1869, stirred the imagination of 
 the whole country and of the world. For twenty 
 years the army of California gold seekers had gone 
 around the stormy Horn, across the deadly Isthmus, 
 or had slowly followed the long and weary trails across 
 the continent, exposed to incessant dangers from 
 Indians and to no small risk of destruction from 
 thirst and starvation. Xow the prairie schooner gave 
 way to the exj^ress train, and the entire Pacific Slope 
 began to fill up, as well as the vast region on both 
 sides of the 1,800 miles of single-track line from 
 Council Bluffs to San Francisco, which was thus 
 thrown open to settlement. Europe began to send 
 its capital to develop the wealth of America's vast 
 western territories, w^hile immigrants by hundreds of 
 thousands began to flock to this Xew World of un- 
 bounded opportunity. 
 
 112 
 
The M e k c a X t I l e Agency 
 
 It is interesting to note how this spirit of op- 
 timism was reflected in the growth of The Mercan- 
 tile Agency. In 1871 six new offices were opened 
 — more than in any single year since the institution 
 started. In 1872 no less than twenty new branches 
 were established. Here is the list for 1871, in the 
 order in which they are listed in the Red Book:* 
 Nashville, Tenn. ; St. John, X. B.; Indianapolis, 
 Ind. ; Newark, N. J. ; 
 Portland, Ore., and 
 Providence, R. I. 
 There was one office 
 in the South, one in 
 the British Provinces, 
 one in the Central 
 States, one in the 
 Central Atlantic 
 States, one o n the 
 Pacific Slope and one 
 in New England — if 
 the managers of the 
 Agency had wished 
 to demonstrate how skillfully they could meet 
 the growing needs of every part of the United 
 States and Canada, they could hardly have made 
 a better distribution. The office at Nashville, 
 originally opened from Louisville, is now the head of 
 a very extensive district of its own; the branch at St. 
 
 *The Red Book is a publication of some 220 pages for the use of branch 
 managers. It gives the list of oflBces, alphabetically, chronologically, by 
 districts, etc., and the exact territory assigned to each, the oflQce responsible 
 for each county, etc. 
 
 113 
 
 Providence Office, established 1871 
 Facing Exchange Place, the civic cen- 
 ter of this husg industrial city 
 
Set e X t y - f I V e Years of 
 
 John was opened by the IVIontreal office as a result of 
 the union of tlie maritime provinces with Canada; the 
 Indianapohs office was at first in the Cincinnati dis- 
 trict, but is now independent, while Newark was 
 opened directly from New York. Providence was at 
 first a suboffice of Hartford. 
 
 At Portland, Ore., then a suboffice in the San 
 Francisco district, the manager had to face veritable 
 pioneering conditions in 1871. The city had a popu- 
 lation of 8,203, and was the only place of importance 
 in the entire Pacific Northwest. It therefore enjoyed 
 a wholesale trade out of all j^roportion to its size and 
 had many prosperous merchants. The only railroad 
 in Oregon at that time ran from Portland to Rose- 
 burg, a distance of 198 miles. In Washington Ter- 
 ritory the Northern Pacific had built a line from 
 Kalama to Tacoma, a distance of 102 miles, with a 
 branch from Tenino Junction to Olympia, some 15 
 miles. There w^as also a primitive line from Walla 
 Walla to Wallula, about 31 miles in length. Every- 
 where else in Oregon, with its area of 96,030 square 
 miles, and in Washington with 69,180, traveling was 
 by primitive river boats and by stage. In the winter 
 the almost bottomless roads rendered progress slow 
 and uncertain, w^hile in summer the thick dust was al- 
 most equally unpleasant. The pojiulation was sparse 
 and the towns few and far between. One traveler 
 covered the entire district at first, and made trips of 
 magnificent distances. Starting at Ashland, near the 
 California line, he went by stage to Roseburg, about 
 
 114 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 Portland, Ore., Office, established 1871 
 First opened when Portland had a population of 8,203. 
 The present office is located in the Morgan Building 
 
 140 miles. Thence the trip to Portland down the 
 Willamette Valley could be made by rail, and from 
 there to The Dalles, on the Columbia River, by steam- 
 boat. From that point the trip had to be made by 
 "buckboard" to Canyon City, 350 miles in the in- 
 terior and most of the way out of sight of settlements. 
 Then followed trips by stage, buckboard or on horse- 
 back of 55, 96, 173, 292, and 220 miles, and a final 
 long river stretch of 356 miles back to Portland, mak- 
 ing a total circuit of nearly 1,800 miles ! In Washing- 
 ton the traveler's task was nearly as arduous, and he 
 also had to go across the Sound to report British 
 Columbia. 
 
 The number of offices opened in 1872 was so great 
 that individual references to each of them w^ould be 
 tedious. Those selected for illustration in this chapter 
 
 115 
 
S i: y V X T Y - F I \ V. Y k a r s o r 
 ai-e district offices at present. The list follows: 
 
 Columbus. Oliio 
 Davenport, Iowa 
 Dayton, Ohio 
 Dubuque, Iowa 
 Erie, Pa. 
 Evansville, Ind. 
 Galveston, Texas 
 Grand Ra])ids, Micli. 
 Kansas City, Mo. 
 ^Mobile, Ala. 
 
 Quincy, 111. 
 St. Joseph, ^lo. 
 Seranton, Pa. 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 Troy, N. Y. 
 Utica, N. Y. 
 Worcester, jNIass. 
 Glasgow, Scotland. 
 Paris, France 
 Hamilton, Ont. 
 
 T h e opening of 
 the Galveston office 
 illustrates the shift in 
 mercantile conditions, 
 due to the rapid ex- 
 pansion of the coun- 
 try, that resulted in 
 the establishment of 
 many new branch 
 offices during this 
 period. As the rail- 
 roads did not begin to 
 reach into Texas from 
 the North and East 
 until after the close of 
 the war, Galveston 
 was, down to the 
 middle sixties, about 
 the only commercial gateway to the State. Merchan- 
 dise came to the port by coasting steamers and nearly 
 all business transactions of anv moment had their 
 
 Denver Office, established 18H 
 Occupying about half of the 7th floor 
 of the Exchanpe BuUding 
 
 116 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 origin at New Orleans, where The Mercantile Agency 
 had maintained an office since 1851. With the increase 
 in population in the vast region comprised within 
 the boundaries of Texas, independent distributing 
 houses began to be established at Galveston and com- 
 mercial relations with New Orleans dwindled rapidly. 
 The opening of the Galveston office was, therefore, 
 a prompt recognition 
 on the part of the 
 executive manage- 
 ment of the altered 
 mercantile situation in 
 this district. 
 
 The next to the 
 last office in the large 
 group established in 
 1872— that at Paris— 
 also merits a brief 
 w^ord in passing. 
 Opened almost simul- 
 taneously with the 
 suboffice established by the London branch at Glas- 
 gow, it was the third branch of The ^Mercantile 
 Agency in Europe. For twenty years the office sup- 
 plied international service only — reporting to Xew 
 York and London regarding the standing of French 
 houses, and to clients in France regarding credits in 
 the other regions covered by The Mercantile Agency. 
 It was not until after the year 1900 that the Paris 
 
 Glasgow Office, estahlished 1872 
 Situated in Castle Chambers, 
 55 West Regent Street 
 
 117 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 office bet^an to assume tlie inii)()rtant place in the 
 Agency system that it holds to-day. 
 
 In 1873, the year of the great panic, only one 
 new office was established, that at New Haven, Conn., 
 which w^as originally opened as a suboffice of Hart- 
 ford. During the next four years, howxver, the ex- 
 pansion of the service was so rapid that the list of the 
 new offices can best be indicated by a table: 
 
 In 1874. In 1876. 
 
 Atlanta, Ga. La Crosse, Wis. 
 
 Denver, Col. Berlin, Germany 
 
 Savannah, Ga. London, Ont. 
 
 Williamsport, Pa. In 1877. 
 
 In 1875. Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 Glovers ville, N. Y. Omaha, Neb. 
 
 Dallas, Tex. Peoria, 111. 
 
 St. Paul, Minn. Springfield, Mass. 
 
 Houston, Tex. Des IVIoines, lovi^a. 
 
 Keokuk, Iowa 
 Binghamton, N. Y. 
 
 The second office in the 1874 group was another 
 pioneer in a new district. The following brief account 
 of the conditions under w^hich the work of the Agency 
 was carried on at that point forty-two years ago is of 
 interest, because the conditions described were in a 
 general way similar to those encountered at most of 
 the offices established in the West and Southwest 
 during the period: 
 
 Tlie town (Denver) at that time was rough and 
 tough, and had a population of about 25,000. It was a 
 mining and cattle center. It grew rapidly, however, 
 and our office with it. . . . During the period from 
 1880 to 1890 the town experienced a terrific boom and 
 the work of The Mercantile Agency in those days was 
 
 118 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
S E y E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S O F 
 
 one of great diffieiilty and responsibility. ]\Iercliants, 
 traders and other ])eo])le eame from all ])arts of the 
 country, started in business, and immediately sought 
 credit. Reliable credit information, as can be readily 
 understood, was very difficult to secure under the cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 The same remarks apply to otlier ])arts of the ter- 
 ritory wliicli was then, and is now, under the juris- 
 diction of this office. Prosperous towns like Leadville 
 and Cripple Creek sprang up almost over night, huge 
 ore bodies were discovered and immense wealth was 
 created in a few weeks — bringing with it all its 
 attending parasites. The merchants and manufac- 
 turers in the East, who made large fortunes out of 
 their Western business, do not give The Mercantile 
 Agency credit for the wonderful work it performed in 
 their interest in those da^'s, or realize how steadfastly 
 and persistently it separated, in a credit way, the 
 wolves from the lambs, and the sheep from the goats. 
 
 Men would walk down the main street of the city 
 of Leadville swinging their revolvers by a chain at- 
 tached to their wrists, ready for use on the slightest 
 provocation. Shooting scrapes in a gambling "joint" 
 next to our office were a regular occurrence. During 
 that entire period, we always had traveling reporters 
 to cover the territory. The arduousness of their work 
 can well be imagined. Railroads and trains were few 
 and far between; most of the traveling had to be done 
 on horseback or by stage through the ranches, hills and 
 mining towns in sparsely settled districts infested by 
 desperadoes, half-breeds, cowpunchers and tough char- 
 acters of all kinds. Stage robberies were frequent and 
 the rights of property were often decided either by the 
 fitful laws of chance, or by quickness on the trigger. 
 
 In connection with the early history of the office 
 at La Crosse, Wis., a report of the estabhshment of 
 the office, which appeared in the Daily Liberal Demo- 
 crat of La Crosse, February 7th, 1876, contained the 
 following interesting paragraph: 
 
 120 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 This Agency has always been active in initiating 
 and putting in improvements whenever and wherever 
 there has seemed to be need of any. They have recently 
 brought to their aid the new invention called Type 
 Writing Machines^, by which all of their reports are 
 manifolded and at once duplicated to every office in the 
 chain — 68 in all. This does away with the former delay 
 of having to send to some branch office for the required 
 information. 
 
 This reference to the use of the typewriter is 
 especially interesting, 
 because it indicates 
 at what an early date 
 
 that invention was in 1"^ 
 
 constructed, "each a little better than its predecessor 
 though still lacking the essentials of a successful 
 machine." In 1873 a few of the first model that 
 seemed to be commercially practicable were made and 
 
 of 1866-67. Alto- 
 
 general use in the of- 
 fices of The Mercan- 
 tile Agency, which 
 was the first great 
 American business 
 house to give this de- 
 vice a practical trial. 
 The first experiments 
 with the typewriter 
 began in the winter 
 
 gether, some twenty- 
 five or thirty experi- 
 mental machines were 
 
 Omaha Office 
 Established 1877 
 Woodmen of the World Building 
 
 121 
 
Sevexty-five Years of 
 
 offered to the public, but it proved to be very hard to 
 interest capital in the new invention. In 1874< the 
 device was shown to the Xew York executives of R. 
 G. Dux & Co., who agreed that if it could be demon- 
 strated that the machines were capable of accomplish- 
 ing certain results the firm would supply the means 
 to build some of them 
 and would give the 
 invention a thorough 
 trial. There was then 
 no such thing as car- 
 bon paper and the 
 first ex2)eriments in 
 manifolding were 
 made by using shoe 
 blacking smeared over 
 thin ma nil a paper. 
 After several months 
 of experimenting the 
 work produced by 
 these crude methods 
 was shown to the man- 
 agement of The Mer- 
 cantile Agency and an 
 order w^as placed for 100 machines to be distributed 
 among the various offices. This w^as the first large 
 order secured by the inventors and their associates, 
 and came at the critical moment when the writing 
 machine was struggling for general recognition and 
 
 122 
 
 ^^t. Paul Office 
 Established 1875 
 Commerce Building 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 the enterprise seemed doomed to failm-e from lack 
 of public supi3ort. 
 
 The machine thus adopted was a clumsy looking 
 affair, compared with the visible writing machines of 
 the present day. The front, back and sides were en- 
 tirely enclosed with enameled tin, and the keyboard 
 
 TJie first ti/peicritrr used in the tcork of The Mercantile 
 Afjenci/ — oftericards known as '•Reminyton Model Xo. 1" 
 
 had a hinged cover. While the machines were be- 
 ing manufactured, experiments were made with a 
 view to producing a black paper that could be used 
 between two sheets of white paper that would leave 
 
 123 
 
S E V E N T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 124 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 an impression on the white paper when struck by a 
 type. Success attended these efforts and a firm in 
 Philadelphia began to supply carbon paper, or "black 
 impression paper," as it was at first called, in sufficient 
 quantities to meet the requirements of the Agency. 
 Several months were necessary in order to complete 
 the machines, and it was 1875 before everything was 
 ready for the test of actual use in the every-day 
 work of the organization. There are a number of 
 the employees in some of the older offices who can still 
 recall the advent of the "new-fangled contraption" 
 for doing away with handwriting and the laborious 
 copying of reports. Naturally the best penmen were 
 strongly opposed to the machine at first and some of 
 them reported that it was "no good." Gradually, how- 
 ever (and largely as a result of the practical tests 
 applied in the work of the Agency), the early imper- 
 fections and crudities of the original machine were 
 eliminated and the operators became more proficient. 
 
 It is possible, by referring to the early archives of 
 The Mercantile Agency, to fix with considerable 
 definiteness the date when the typewriter was adopted 
 for general use throughout all the branch offices of 
 the institution. On November 23rd, 1875, the firm 
 sent out a circular to all its branch managers, giving 
 them final instructions as to "Duplication by Mani- 
 folding." This was accompanied by a book of 153 
 pages containing 21 pages of Rules and Instructions 
 relative to the use of the typewriter in manifolding 
 tissue copies of all reports. The remaining pages con- 
 
 125 
 
S E y E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 tained the distribution tables for each of the 65 offices 
 in existence at that time. This was the first edition of 
 the "Distribution Tables," a feature of the Agency 
 system that has been continued ever since. The first 
 and second editions, the latter issued in 1877, were 
 bound in green covers, but for many years past the 
 book has been bound in blue covers, and is now gener- 
 ally known as the Blue Book. The following extract 
 from the 1875 edition explains the purpose of the 
 new system: 
 
 The "Original" copy of a report has hitherto served 
 a very important purpose, for, after liaving been copied 
 in the office of origin, it has been sent to the nearest 
 office demanding the information, and, after copying, 
 by them transmitted to others, and so on, to wliatever 
 office required to copy the territory from wliich the 
 report originated. But it has been found tliat from 
 the multiplication of offices which the last few years 
 has witnessed, and also from the changes which new 
 railroads and the creation of new markets have made, 
 that this mode of depending upon the original docu- 
 ment to supply all the demands for information from 
 it, is utterly inadequate. Hence a necessity has arisen 
 for some mode by which a report originating in one office 
 should be simultaneously and promptly distributed to all 
 Branches that need the information. . . . 
 
 One of the objects sought by duplication is to 
 enable . . .all the offices to make, by aid of tlie type- 
 writer and manifold paper, as man}^ copies of every 
 report as will be required by the various offices interested 
 therein, and transmitting the same simultaneously to 
 them. 
 
 Another object of the new plan was to do away 
 entirely with the copying in longhand of the enor- 
 mous number of reports required by other offices, as 
 it was proposed that thereafter "the copies of reports 
 
 126 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
Set e X t y -five Years of 
 
 shall reach offices that need them in such shape that 
 they can he pasted in Binders or Scrap-hooks s])ecially 
 prepared for the purpose, so that the reports may 
 be not only safely preserved, but be made readily ac- 
 cessible." This system of duplication by manifold- 
 ing was gradually extended to all the offices in the 
 Agency's chain and there can be very little doubt that 
 
 A portion of the Winnipeg office in the Keewayden Building. 
 This branch was opened in 1882 
 
 The Mercantile Agency was the largest individual 
 user of typewriters at that date. 
 
 Prior to the introduction of the typewriter the 
 records of every office were kept in substantially the 
 same way as those of Lewis Tappan & Co. in 1841 — 
 in huge ledgers, each item being copied in longhand. 
 The handwriting in these old records was almost uni- 
 
 128 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 formly excellent, and in many cases even beautiful, 
 but the system was cumbersome and laborious. When- 
 ever an office was burned, or a new office opened, many 
 thousands of these records had to be copied from 
 the books of other offices into a new set of ledgers. 
 As the number of records increased the task of in- 
 dexing this vast amount of information became a 
 well-nigh colossal one, for frequently the records of a 
 
 I. 
 
 Half of the main room of the St. Paul Office, 
 which occupies 4,000 square feet altogether 
 
 single concern might be entered in a dozen different 
 volumes. From constant handling, moreover, the 
 ledgers soon became dilapidated and in time had to 
 be re-copied. There are volumes in the possession of 
 the head office at New York in which records dated 
 1846 are written on the same page with others 
 as late as 1870. It was the universal practice in the 
 early days to invite subscribers to call at the offices 
 
 129 
 
S E V E N T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 and liave reports in which they were interested read to 
 tlieni. In Xew York it was the custom of lar^^e nier- 
 chants, Hke A. T. Stewart & Co., to have a trusted 
 clerk from the credit department at the office of the 
 Agency all day long, while many concerns had clerks 
 who spent half their time there. The adoption of the 
 typewriter enabled the Agency to save to its sub- 
 scribers the entire time of these clerks — in many in- 
 stances amounting to hundreds or even thousands of 
 dollars annually. 
 
 The adoption of the typewriter not only did away 
 with all the copying of records by hand — thus doing 
 away with the ledgers above described — but enabled 
 the managers of the Agency to work out a new system 
 for handling and filing reports. During the forty 
 years that have elapsed since typewriting took the 
 place of hand\^Titing in the copying of the Agency's 
 I'ecords many important improvements have been ef- 
 fected in the system first adopted, as explained in the 
 1875 edition of the Blue Book. It wmild be tedious 
 to describe these changes in detail, but the following 
 brief summary gives the essential facts regarding the 
 system in operation in all offices of The Mercantile 
 Agency throughout the world. One copy of every 
 original report made in any office is sent to New York, 
 and in the case of suboffices an additional copy is sent 
 to the district office in cliarge. After these copies, 
 or "tissues," as they are called, are received by the 
 office where they are to be kept on file, they are pasted 
 on heavy sheets of manila paper, each sheet having 
 
 130 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 pasted upon it all the reports relating to a single firm. 
 After the tissues fill both sides of the sheet others are 
 added by means of linen hinges, so that in the case of 
 a concern regarding which the records go back for 
 many years the Agency may have scores of reports 
 on file, all of which are kept together in the manner 
 described, so that no reference to another set of sheets 
 is necessary. The 
 sheets are cut to a uni- 
 form size and put in 
 binders, or compart- 
 ments. As this sys- 
 tem was inaugurated, 
 and carried to a very 
 high degree of per- 
 fection, long before 
 modern office and fil- 
 ing appliances were 
 thought of, the cases 
 in which the binders 
 are kept are not the 
 same in all the offices 
 — although the gen- 
 eral system of filing is identical. A number of 
 the illustrations in this book show portions of the 
 filing cabinets in use in various offices. It is diffi- 
 cult to convey an adequate conception of the enor- 
 mous volume of mechanical work involved in copy- 
 ing, pasting and filing typewritten reports, and in 
 making and delivering copies for subscribers and 
 
 Jersey Citii Office 
 Established 1882 
 Commercial Trust Building 
 
 131 
 
S E V E N T Y - F I y E Y E A R S OF 
 
 other offices. Without the aid of the typewriter and 
 the manifolding system it would he impossihle for the 
 Agency to keep ahreast of the huge requirements of 
 modern commerce, especially in the United States. 
 
 The next office estahlished after that at La 
 Crosse was located in Germany, and was opened in 
 response to the demand for a hranch of The INIercan- 
 tile Agency in that country, owing to the rapid devel- 
 opment of German commerce and industry after the 
 conclusion of the war 
 of 1870-71. This 
 branch was first situ- 
 ated at Leipzig, the 
 seat of the German 
 fur trade and the prin- 
 cipal commercial cen- 
 ter of the Kingdom of 
 Saxony. A few years 
 later it was trans- 
 ferred to Berlin in 
 consequence of the 
 
 rapid growth of that city after it became the capital of 
 the Empire. For a time the Berlin office confined 
 itself chiefly to furnishing German subscribers with 
 information regarding the standing of American 
 firms, and supplying the other offices of the Agency 
 chain with similar information for their subscribers 
 regarding traders in Germany. 
 
 In 1878 only one new office was established, at 
 Saginaw, Mich. At that time Saginaw was important 
 
 Little Rock Office 
 Established 1879 
 Bonk of Commerce Building 
 
 132 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 chiefly on account of its shipments of lumber and salt, 
 the city being the center of the lumber industry of the 
 State. The principal receipts from other points were 
 sugar, coal and farm products. Curiously enough, 
 the lumber industry is now a thing of the past, and the 
 city's principal shipments are sugar, coal and farm 
 products. In 1879 four new branches were opened — 
 Allentown, Pa.; Bangor, Me.; Elmira, N. Y., and 
 Little Rock, Ark. Among the correspondents of the 
 Bangor office is an 
 attorney whose father 
 began to supply infor- 
 mation to the Agency 
 in his town in 1848 or 
 1849 and continued to 
 act as correspondent 
 there until his death, 
 when he was suc- 
 ceeded by his son, who 
 still acts in this ca- 
 pacity. 
 
 In July, 1880, Charles Barlow, who had been a 
 partner in the firm since 1859, died suddenly at his 
 home at Long Branch, N. J. Mr. Barlow was born 
 at Dudley, in Yorkshire, England, and entered the 
 service of Lewis Tappan & Co. in 1844. Although 
 only fifty-five years of age at the time of his death he 
 had been in the employ of The Mercantile Agency 
 thirty-six years. According to one of the obituary ac- 
 counts of his career, "he was a man ardently devoted 
 
 Jacksonville Office 
 Established 1890 
 Realty Building 
 
 133 
 
Seventy-five 
 
 Years 
 
 o F 
 
 to business, and was distin<>'uishe(l by a coolness and 
 accuracy of judgment whicli made him a source of 
 great strengtli to his house. He was conservative in 
 his tendencies, but safe and sure." In the letter an- 
 nouncing his death the firm wrote: " His long years 
 of devotedness to the best interests of the business, 
 his sterling integrity and his remarkable capacity are 
 now only recalled to mark how great has been our 
 loss." The firm style of the New York office had 
 been Dun, Barlow & Co. for many years, but after Mr. 
 Barlow's death it w^as changed to R. G. Dux & Co., 
 like the other offices in the United States and Europe. 
 On January 1st, 1881, Robert Dun Douglass and A. 
 J. King were admitted to partnership with Mr. Dun, 
 and at the close of the following year. Matthias B. 
 Smith retired. 
 
 In the year 1880 no new branch offices were 
 opened, but in the decade from 1881 to 1890 the num- 
 ber of offices established was forty-eight, as follows: 
 
 1881 
 
 1883 
 
 Salt Lake, Utah 
 Montgomery, Ala. 
 San Antonio, Tex 
 
 Cedar Rapids, Iowa 
 Sioux City, Iowa 
 
 Lincoln, Neb. 
 Rockford, 111. 
 Springfield, O. 
 Chattanooga, Tenn. 
 Austin, Tex. 
 
 1882 
 
 1881 
 
 Winnipeg, Man. 
 Fort Worth, Tex. 
 Reading, Pa. 
 Waco, Tex. 
 Jersey City, N. J. 
 
 Knoxville, Tenn. 
 Ottumwa, Iowa 
 Duluth, Minn. 
 
 1885 
 
 Birmingham, Ala. 
 
 134 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
S E V E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 Wichita, Kan. 
 Springfield. Mo, 
 Helena, Mont. 
 Slierman, Tex. 
 
 Atchison, Kan. 
 Wlieeling, W. Va. 
 
 188() 
 
 Cairo, 111. 
 Tacoma, Wasli. 
 Seattle, Wasli. 
 Spokane, Wash. 
 Wilmington, N. C. 
 El Paso, Tex. 
 
 1889 
 
 Macon, Ga. 
 Los Angeles, Cal. 
 Sedalia, Mo. 
 Melbourne, Australia 
 1888 
 
 1887 
 
 Wilmington, Del. 
 Bridgeport, Conn. 
 Paducah, Ky. 
 Columbus, Ga. 
 
 1890 
 
 Shreveport, La. 
 Pueblo, Col. 
 Topeka, Kan. 
 Fort Smith, Ark. 
 
 Jacksonville, Fla. 
 Fort Wayne, Ind. 
 Lynchburg, Va. 
 Augusta, Ga. 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 In many of these offices The Mercantile Agency, 
 following the traditions of its earlier years, was 
 with the vanguard of the pioneers who were then 
 developing the vast resources of the AVest and South- 
 west in the United States and of Western Canada. 
 In Texas the managers of the new offices frequently 
 went out on the construction trains, arriving at their 
 posts when the railroad did. Reporting these districts 
 involved the same long journeys by river, rail, stage- 
 coach and on horseback that characterized the work 
 in the Far West. In Western Canada conditions 
 were the same. When the Winnipeg office was opened 
 in 1882, the manager, to reach his post, had to go by 
 steamer to Duluth, then by rail as far as Glyndon, 
 Minn. From that point he took a small steamer down 
 the Red Deer River — "the crookedest of all rivers" — 
 to Grand Forks, Dakota. The steamboat was loaded 
 
 136 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 with steel rails for the Canadian Pacific Railway 
 which was then being built. Settlers were pouring in 
 from all over the world and new places were springing 
 up in all directions. In the Winnipeg district, in Tex- 
 as, and at the other outposts of the Agency during that 
 period, one of the most difficult tasks was to report 
 the mushroom cities 
 
 that continually J 
 sprang up "at the end J 
 of the track," as the 
 new railways ad- 
 vanced across the 
 prairies. Each of 
 these had a very con- 
 siderable percentage 
 of traders who sought 
 credit, opened their 
 stores — sometimes 
 quite pretentious ones 
 — and then suddenly 
 disappeared, leaving a 
 few empty boxes and 
 barrels and a multi- 
 tude of unpaid bills 
 behind them. 
 
 The opening of the office at Melbourne, Aus- 
 traha, in 1887 merits a brief reference, as this was 
 the first branch of the Agency to be estabhshed outside 
 of North America and Europe. The office was opened 
 by the manager at London, England, who made a 
 
 137 
 
 r 
 
 1 
 i 
 
 III 
 
 
 
 liiii 
 
 
 
 ml 
 
 fill 
 
 
 1 
 
 iik 
 
 i 
 
 
 ... 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 ip 
 
 ' III 
 
 Hi 
 
 11 
 
 I 
 
 if 
 
 Washington, D. C, Office 
 Estahlished 1890 
 National Metropolitan Bank Building 
 
S E y E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 special trip to Australia for the purpose. Resident 
 af^ents were appointed at the husiness centers of 
 Western Australia, South Australia, Xew South 
 Wales, Queensland and Xew Zealand. All of these 
 districts are now covered hy separate offices. 
 
 During tlie two decades the history of which has 
 been briefly chronicled in this chapter the number of 
 offices in The IVIercantile Agency's chain increased 
 from 28 to 126, a gain of exactly 350 per cent. 
 In the United States and Canada the Agency's ser- 
 vice was extended into practically every region then 
 inhabited, while abroad the service was greatly 
 strengthened by the new offices in Europe and the out- 
 post in Australia. By 1890 the domestic field had been 
 so thoroughly covered that the need of additional of- 
 fices was only felt occasionally in districts where the 
 population and volume of mercantile transactions 
 were increasing with the greatest rapidity. It was to 
 the foreign field that The Mercantile Agency now had 
 to turn to find the greatest opportunities for expan- 
 sion and the further enlargement of its usefulness. 
 
 138 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Agency Expands Into a World-Wide 
 Organization 
 
 1891-1916 
 
 DuRiXG the first half century of its existence the 
 growth of The Mercantile Agency was confined 
 largely to the United States and Canada, only five of 
 its 126 offices having been established elsewhere — four 
 in Europe and one in Australia. During the last 
 quarter of a century, and particularly during the last 
 fifteen years, the history of the Agency has been a 
 record of expansion in Europe, Africa, Australasia 
 and Latin America that has placed it in the first rank 
 among international organizations and carried the 
 system inaugurated by Lewis Tappan into every cor- 
 ner of the globe. Out of the total of 115 new offices 
 established during this period no less than 83 were 
 located outside of the United States, and of these 77 
 were opened since 1900. 
 
 In 1891 and 1892 six new offices were established, 
 as follows: Vancouver and Winston-Salem in 1891; 
 and Trenton, Quebec, Ottawa and Wilkes-Barre in 
 1892. In 1893 new offices were opened at Zanes- 
 ville, Ohio, and Charleston, W. Va. In February of 
 the same year the list of Mr. Dun's partners was re- 
 duced to two — Arthur J. King and Robert Dun 
 
 139 
 
S E V E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 Douglass. Six months later ]Mr. Dun established, 
 under the management and personal supervision of 
 Mr. Douglass, Dux's Review, a journal of finance 
 and trade that has since been published every Satur- 
 day, and is generally recognized as the national au- 
 thority on business conditions. The first number 
 was issued August 5th, 1893, and the periodical at 
 once became the medium for the publication of the 
 failure returns sent in by all offices in the United 
 States and Canada. Another feature, which was like- 
 wise an outgrowth of the trade circulars that had been 
 published by the firm for many years, was the weekly 
 summary of business conditions, based upon reports 
 received from all the Agency managers throughout 
 the United States and Canada. The Review at 
 present also publishes a weekly and monthly compila- 
 tion of bank exchanges, a monthly record of build- 
 ing permits, and an Index Xumber and other statistics 
 as to the prices of commodities. From time to time 
 it issues special reports regarding the crop situation 
 throughout the country that are widely copied, and 
 the first of each year prepares a valuable general 
 review of the business situation in the United States 
 and Canada. 
 
 In February, 1894, the first Mercantile Agency 
 Manual was published. This was a compilation of 
 rulings on various questions and special information 
 for the benefit of managers that was prepared at the 
 express request of Mr. Dun. The first edition com- 
 prised regulations and instructions that had been is- 
 
 140 
 
The ]Mercaxtile Agency 
 
 sued in special circulars to the managers from time to 
 time since 1883. In later editions the valuable ma- 
 terial contained in this publication has been kept 
 
 ROBERT DUX DOUGLASS 
 Associated with the management of The Mercantile Agency for 
 forty-four years, and present head of Board of Trustees 
 
 constantly revised and up to date, and the size of the 
 book has steadily expanded until at present it com- 
 
 141 
 
Seven t y - r i v e Years of 
 
 prises 190 pages, the general index consisting of near- 
 ly 450 items. In 1897 a separate Reporters' Manual 
 was issued, a publication that has since been reissued 
 at occasional intervals. 
 
 In 1894, no doubt in consequence of the panic of 
 the year before, no new branch offices were established. 
 In 1895 only one was opened — at Canton, Ohio — and 
 in 1896 no additions were made to the Agency's chain. 
 On September 28th of that year Arthur J. King died 
 at his residence, Bloomfield, N. J., after forty-seven 
 years of service in The Mercantile Agency. Mr. 
 King was born near London, England, in 1824, and 
 came to this country when a young man, entering the 
 Xew York office of the Agency as a clerk. He was the 
 first manager of the office at Cleveland, then became 
 manager at Cincinnati, and was afterward manager 
 for eleven years at St. Louis. He was called to New 
 York in 1880, and was a partner in the business and 
 the general manager at the time of his death. He w^as 
 a man of high character, inflexible in his devotion to 
 principle, and of unusual business ability. ^Ir. King 
 was succeeded as general manager by Robert Dun 
 Douglass, who was ]Mr. Dun's only partner for the 
 remainder of the latter 's lifetime. 
 
 In December, 1897, an office was opened at Mexi- 
 co City — the first branch of the Agency in Latin Amer- 
 ica. Mexico was then enjoying the benefits of the 
 longest period of peace and prosperity in the history 
 of the republic. American and European capital was 
 being invested in all parts of the country and its vast 
 
 142 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 natural resources were beginning to be developed. 
 Railroads were in course of construction in regions 
 where they were most needed, and costly port works 
 were inaugurated by the government in order to af- 
 ford safe harbors for the ships that this internal ac- 
 tivity brought in increasing numbers. The time was 
 seen to be most auspi- 
 cious for the estab- 
 lishment of an office to 
 report to exporters 
 in Europe and the 
 United States regard- 
 ing the standing and 
 antecedents of the 
 firms that were then 
 seeking credit abroad. 
 Some of these were 
 new American or 
 European houses es- 
 tablished as a result 
 of the influx of for- 
 eign capital, others 
 wxre concerns that 
 had existed for years, but were now doing a larger 
 business. There were new electric light and power 
 companies, new mines and plantations, new factories 
 in several lines, new^ trading houses in every State. 
 In 1901 the volume of business necessitated open- 
 ing a suboffice at Guadalajara. Others were estab- 
 lished from year to year, until by 1907 there were 
 
 Mexico City Office 
 Estami-sJied 1897 
 2a Capuchinas Xo. 48 
 
 143 
 
S E V E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S O F 
 
 seven offices of The INIercantile Agency in ^Nlex- 
 ico. The Agency's system in Mexico was at that 
 date so complete that practically every business 
 concern of any importance in the republic was 
 reported, its list of correspondents covering every 
 state, and nearly every town. These records have 
 been saved and will prove of inestimable value when 
 business conditions become normal again, not only to 
 merchants in the United States and Europe grant- 
 ing credits in Mexico to houses known to be respon- 
 sible, but to all such houses as well. During the recent 
 troubles the suboffices have been kept open as far 
 as possible, and the head office at Mexico City has 
 never closed. The annals of The Mercantile Agency 
 contain no finer example of courage and devotion 
 than that displayed by its staff in Mexico since the 
 retirement of Porfirio Diaz. 
 
 On November 17th, 1897, announcement was 
 made in Boston and vicinity of an important change 
 in the Boston office of The Mercantile Agenc}^ and the 
 four suboffices in that district, as follows: 
 
 The undersigned, sole proprietor of The Mercantile 
 Agency, who has conducted its business since 1851, 
 under style of Edward Russell & Co., with partners, 
 successively, George William Gordon, Edwin F. Waters, 
 George A. Priest, and George H. Hull, Jr., none of 
 them now living, admonished by advancing years of 
 his necessary retirement ere long, and desiring repose 
 after fifty-three years' continuous service in the Agency, 
 avails himself of the friendly offer of Messrs. R. G. Dun 
 & Co. to assume the business of his offices in Boston, 
 Worcester, Lynn, Portland and Bangor from January 
 1st, 1898. Edward Russell. 
 
 144 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 145 
 
S E V E N T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 In actual operation, the relations between Ed- 
 ward Russell & Co. and R. G. Dux & Co., and the 
 latter's various predecessors, were always so intimate 
 that, in so far as the interests of subscribers 
 were concerned, the two were virtually a single con- 
 cern. Mr. Russell during his long career constantly 
 maintained the highest standards of The ^lercantile 
 Agency, and always cordially co-operated with the 
 management at Xew York in promptly extending to 
 his part of the system every improvement that was 
 made in theirs. He retired from the business enjoying 
 in the highest degree the esteem of his former associates 
 and the respect and good-will of the mercantile com- 
 munity throughout Xew^ England. 
 
 The year 1898 w^as a memorable one, because it 
 witnessed the completion of the beautiful Dun Build- 
 ing at the northeast corner of Reade Street and Broad- 
 way, now familiar wherever The Mercantile Agency 
 is known as the home of the head office at New York. 
 From 1841 to 1845 the address of The Mercantile 
 Agency (then Lewds Tappan & Co.) was Hanover 
 Street, corner of Exchange Place. From 1846 to 
 
 1849 the address was 9 Exchange Place, and from 
 
 1850 to 1853 it was 70 Cedar Street. From 1854 to 
 1857 the address was 111 Broadway, and from then 
 until 1860 was given as 111 Broadway and 314 Broad- 
 way. It then became 314 Broadway only, and in 
 fact that number is alone given in the Reference 
 Books of 1859 and 1860. The office remained at that 
 number during the war, but from 1865 to 1867 it was 
 
 146 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 147 
 
S E V E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 located at 293-295 Broadway — or directly opposite 
 the present building, wliich is Xo. 290. From 1868 
 to January, 1878, the address was 335 Broadway, 
 but between January and July, 1878, the office was 
 moved back to its old location 314-316 Broadw^ay, 
 where it remained until the new building was com- 
 pleted twenty years later. 
 
 It was originally planned to erect a building 
 twenty-one stories in height, but Mr. Dun felt that 
 there were enough "sky-scrapers," as structures over 
 twenty stories high were then called, and the edifice 
 as finally completed had only fifteen floors. As 
 it now stands the edifice is 223 feet in height from 
 the sidew^alk to the sill of the roof, the flagstaff rising 
 70 feet higher, while the basement and sub-basement 
 extend 30 feet below^ the street level. Architecturally 
 it is regarded as one of the most graceful and beauti- 
 ful office structures in America. The exterior is gran- 
 ite, faced wath white marble, while the entrance hall 
 and the grand staircase on the ground floor are in 
 Sienna marble from Italy. All of the wood used in the 
 structure is fireproof, having been treated by an elec- 
 tric process used by many navies in the interior con- 
 struction of warships. Many remarkable tests of 
 wood thus treated were made at the time, and in 
 March, 1900, a fire actually broke out in the building 
 which destroyed all the furniture in one room. The 
 blaze w^as so fierce that iron hinges were twisted and 
 glass melted, but the woodwork was merely scorched 
 and the fire easily confined to the room in which it 
 
 148 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 149 
 
S E A E X T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 started. The building is equipped with its own elec- 
 tric light and power plant, steam being supplied 
 by two 300-H.P. boilers, while the generating sets 
 are located under the Broadway sidewalk. To im- 
 prove the economy and regulation of these generators, 
 and to enable the light and powder to be supplied from 
 one generator without too great a fluctuation in the 
 voltage, a storage battery of 114< cells of chloride ac- 
 cumulators has been installed on the roof. In addi- 
 tion to supplying current for the electric lights in the 
 building this plant furnishes the power for six 
 Sprague screw-type electric elevators, an ash hoist, 
 a sidew^alk elevator and a 72-inch fan — all motor 
 driven — together with a pump to supply water to 
 all floors. The building also contains a 10-ton re- 
 frigerating plant for furnishing ice water to the ten- 
 ants and for the use of a restaurant that is located in 
 the basement. 
 
 As the building was erected primarily as the head 
 office of The Mercantile Agency, the six upper floors, 
 from the tenth to the fifteenth, were expressly de- 
 signed to meet the needs of the business. In recent 
 years the whole of the ninth floor has also been oc- 
 cupied by the firm for its own offices and about INI ay 
 1st of the present year ( 1916) , the first floor was taken 
 also. The executive offices are on the eleventh floor 
 and are handsomely finished in Pavonoza marble. 
 Some years ago a business magazine published a pic- 
 ture of the eleventh floor in a series of illustrations 
 entitled "Famous Battlefields of Business." The 
 
 150 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
S E V E N T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 railed-off section occupied by the general manager and 
 liis assistants might better be hkened to the headquar- 
 ters of the general staff of a great army, for around the 
 broad mahogany table at which the manager sits mat- 
 ters are decided that affect every office in the Agency's 
 world-wide chain, and influence the activities of each 
 of its many thousands of employees. 
 
 The City Department occupies all of the first 
 floor, with its mezzanine gallery, half of the second, 
 part of the seventh, and most of the fifteenth floors. 
 In this department are recorded the reports covering 
 the enormous commercial activities of the City of New 
 York in all of its five boroughs. The twelfth floor is 
 occupied by the Eastern Department, and the thir- 
 teenth and fourteenth by the Department of the South 
 and West, the latter also including Canada. The 
 tenth floor is occupied by the Collection Department, 
 while the ninth contains the Foreign Department, the 
 Reference Book Department and the offices of Dux^s 
 Review. 
 
 Another interesting event in the year 1898 was 
 the establishment of The Mercantile Agency Mutual 
 Benefit Association by a number of the employees of 
 the New York office, for the purpose of providing a 
 fund from which death benefits could be paid. All 
 the employees, without exception, were declared eli- 
 gible, irrespective of age, physical condition, or any 
 of the considerations that usually api^ly in undertak- 
 ings of this character. Under the plan adopted, the 
 payment of five cents per week provides for a death 
 
 152 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 benefit of $200, while for ten cents a week, the amount 
 of the benefit has been fixed at $300. 
 
 During the eighteen years of the Association's 
 existence, benefits to the number of 121 have been 
 paid, or a total of $28,500. The Association had to 
 its credit January 1st, 1916, funds, securely invested 
 or deposited in savings banks, amounting to $15,- 
 889.85. While the creation of this surplus was partly 
 due to contributions by the firm, the Association, not- 
 withstanding the liberal terms under which its bene- 
 fits are provided, has been able to meet all its obliga- 
 tions from the annual dues, interest on investments, 
 and the proceeds of annual entertainments, which all 
 connected with the business, from owners to route 
 boys, look forward to, attend, and heartily enjoy. 
 
 In 1898 one branch office w^as established — at 
 Menominee, Mich., its district including the rich cop- 
 per and iron fields in the Upper Peninsula of Michi- 
 gan and the vast lumber region of northwestern Wis- 
 consin. In 1899 an office was established at Havana, 
 Cuba. It proved successful from the very start and 
 has been most helpful to the mercantile interests of 
 the Island as well as to European and American mer- 
 chants extending credit there. 
 
 During the year 1900, by a somewhat remark- 
 able coincidence, the two men who had been succes- 
 sively at the head of The Mercantile Agency for more 
 than fifty years passed away within a few months of 
 one another. On May 4th, Benjamin Douglass, the 
 second proprietor of the Agency, died at Santa Bar- 
 
 153 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 bara, Cal. On disposing of his interest in the institu- 
 tion to Mr. Dun in 18,59, Mr. Douglass virtually re- 
 tired from business, but in 1876 he again entered the 
 service of The INIercantile Agency as manager of the 
 Chicago office and district. This j^osition he retained 
 until January 1st, 1889, eleven years before his death. 
 This was a j^eriod of thirteen years, and — curiously 
 enough — it was for an equal period that he was pre- 
 viously connected with the Agency, from 1846 to 
 1859. One is strongly reminded of the famous ex- 
 ample of John Quincy Adams who, after having been 
 President of the United States, became a member of 
 Congress from Massachusetts, and for many years 
 served his State and the nation with distinguished 
 success in this humbler capacity without in any way 
 lessening his dignity or fame. In the same way Mr. 
 Douglass after having played a conspicuous part as 
 one of the founders and early proprietors of The Mer- 
 cantile Agency, achieved a new success and won the 
 respect and esteem of all who came in contact with him 
 in his later position of district manager. In addition 
 to his remarkable business ability, Mr. Douglass was 
 a fine Hebrew and Greek scholar and a writer of great 
 force and clearness. His handwriting, many exam- 
 ples of which are still preserved in the archives of the 
 Agency, resembled engraving in its neatness and 
 legibility. 
 
 On November 10th, 1900 — or slightly more than 
 six months after the death of his former partner — 
 Robert Graham Dun, the sole proprietor of The Mer- 
 
 154 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 cantile Agency, died at his New York residence. He 
 had been associated with the Agency for nearly half 
 a century and its sole owner since 1859. He had been 
 intimately associated with its growth from a loosely 
 united group of seven small offices, having less than 75 
 employees, to a powerful institution of world-wide 
 renown, with 140 offices and several thousand em- 
 ployees. At the time of his death many hundreds of 
 newspapers noted the event and published sketches 
 of his career. One of the best summaries, however, of 
 the qualities that in a great measure account for his 
 success, appeared in the National Cyclopedia of 
 American Biography, published in 1899: 
 
 In New York^ where he is well known, Mr. Dun 
 is universally respected for his high integrity, broad and 
 liberal views, exceeding amiability, good judgment, and 
 his love of art. His special attribute, however, has 
 been his insight into character, and his ability to secure 
 and retain the services of men of a high degree of capa- 
 city and energy, so that he has constantly augmented 
 the army of capable and reliable people about him. 
 The men of high ability whom this Agency employs in 
 every city, and the excellent local standing of its repre- 
 sentatives everywhere, are evidences of this. Few 
 names are more prominent in commercial circles than 
 that of Robert Graham Dun, while as the head of a 
 great instrumentality of commerce in especial relation 
 to the granting of credits, Mr. Dun has attracted the 
 attention of the people at large. 
 
 Emerson has said that "an institution is the 
 lengthening shadow of one man." Partly by reason of 
 his great gift in choosing his associates, The Mercantile 
 Agency that bears the name of R. G. Dun & Co. is the 
 ''lengthening shadow" of many men. It bears indelibly 
 
 155 
 
Seyenty-five Years of 
 
 impressed upon its organization the marks of Lewis 
 Tappan, its founder. JNIany of its most fundamental 
 characteristics are due to Benjamin Douglass, who 
 had charge of its destinies during the formative period 
 when its principles and policies were determined for 
 all time. Some of the most important features of the 
 Agency service of to-day were planned and inaugu- 
 rated under the direct personal supervision of one or 
 another of Mr. Dun's associates in the executive 
 management of the business, or were the result of the 
 joint efforts of the entire executive body. Countless 
 improvements, many of them of great value, were 
 suggested by branch office managers. No greater 
 tribute can be paid to the memory of Mr. Dun than to 
 recall the fact that during the forty-one years of his 
 supreme control The Mercantile Agency continued to 
 expand and to improve without interruption. There 
 was no backward step. As men of old built monu- 
 ments and temples to their memory, so jNIr. Dun erect- 
 ed during these forty-one years a monument more 
 durable than bronze or stone — the great institution 
 that bears his name. 
 
 Since Mr. Dun's death the business has been 
 conducted under a trusteeship, the trustees after the 
 death of Mrs. Dun being Robert Dun Douglass, Fran- 
 cis L. jVIinton and Thomas James. Mr. James had 
 previously been connected with the work of the Agency 
 for a number of years and on his death, in 1912, was 
 succeeded as trustee by Joseph Packard. 
 
 156 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 In 1901 the executive management at New York 
 inaugm-ated a policy of world-wide expansion that has 
 made the last fifteen years as notable as any period in 
 the history of the Agency. Up to that time the 
 branches at London, Paris, Berlin, etc., were not re- 
 porting offices like those in the United States and 
 Canada, but confined their work to collecting credit 
 information regarding such firms in their respective 
 districts as had been or were likely to be inquired 
 about in this country. 
 
 Every foreign office was now instructed to collect 
 reports regarding all of the principal traders in its dis- 
 trict, and to offer the information thus secured to local 
 clients as well as to those abroad. This broader sphere 
 of action resulted in a vast increase in the volume of 
 business transacted and necessitated the rapid estab- 
 lishment of suboffices in every district. Simultaneous- 
 ly with this expansion in the regions already covered 
 by the Agency's service, the executives at New York 
 took vigorous steps to establish the organization in 
 countries that it had never hitherto reached. There 
 is no "romance of business" more fascinating than 
 the record of these fifteen years. It is a record of 
 achievement in widely scattered fields, and under pro- 
 foundly dissimilar conditions, that, taken as a whole, 
 has few parallels in the annals of American business 
 expansion in foreign lands. 
 
 The very first office established after the new poli- 
 cy had been decided upon affords an excellent example 
 of its results and a striking illustration of its wisdom. 
 
 157 
 
Sevexty-five Years of 
 
 This was the branch at Cape Town, South Africa, 
 which was opened in 1901. The Boer War, which 
 began in October, 1899, was then still in progress. 
 The annexation of the Transvaal had been proclaimed 
 September 1st, 1900, and that of the Orange Free 
 State May 24th of the same year, but hostilities did 
 not cease until May 31st, 1902. There were many 
 who considered this a peculiarly inopportune time to 
 inaugurate the business of The ^Mercantile Agency 
 in that country. jNIr. Douglass, on the other hand, 
 insisted that it was the psychological moment to 
 launch such an enterprise. The result vindicated his 
 judgment and foresight in a remarkable manner. 
 
 By entering the field at this time it was possible 
 to secure reports regarding practically all the im2:)or- 
 tant concerns that had been engaged in business in 
 South Africa before the war, as well as to keep track 
 of the numerous changes that took place during the 
 years of the conflict. Thus equipped, the Agency, 
 by the time peace was restored and business condi- 
 tions began to return to their normal state, possessed 
 a mass of data that no later comer in the territory 
 could ever hope to duplicate. It thus came to be 
 recognized both in South Africa and in Europe as 
 the foremost authority on all matters relating to the 
 financial standing of South African traders, and par- 
 ticularly regarding the credit record of houses that 
 were in existence before the war, or the partners in 
 such houses who afterward undertook new enterprises. 
 The growth in the volume of South African business 
 
 158 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 was so rapid that in 1903 — the year after the close 
 of hostihties — a suboffice was opened at Johannes- 
 burg. This was followed by another subofRce at Port 
 Ehzabeth in 1904, and one at Durban in 1905, making 
 a chain of four South African offices established in 
 four years. 
 
 Some conception of the courage required to es- 
 tablish these offices may be obtained from the fact that 
 a very large amount was expended in South Africa be- 
 fore the business there became self-supporting. This is 
 the invariable experience in opening new offices in a 
 virgin field, since large sums are required to collect 
 and record the data regarding the many thousands 
 or tens of thousands of business houses in such districts 
 before clients can be called upon to pay one penny for 
 reports. Subscribers to foreign reports frequently 
 overlook this fact. The collection of information in 
 South Africa during w^ar time was especially difficult 
 and costly, but the effort was more than justified by 
 the fact, as already noted, that much of the data thus 
 secured could never have been obtained afterward. 
 
 The establishment of a branch office of the 
 Agency at Berlin, Germany, has already been men- 
 tioned. The new policy with respect to the foreign 
 offices involved a change in the service rendered that 
 proved to be exceptionally well adapted to the needs 
 of the business community in the German Empire. 
 Xot only were commerce and industry in that country 
 highly developed, so that the value of this new facility 
 for the further safeguarding of credits was instantly 
 
 159 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 appreciated, but the vast extent of Germany's foreign 
 trade, both export and import, rendered the overseas 
 service of The ]Mercantile Ao-ency especially helpful. 
 The result was an expansion of the business in Ger- 
 many that necessitated the 02)ening of one subolfice 
 after another in raj^id succession until the Agency's 
 chain in the German Emj^ire alone numbered twenty- 
 three offices, in addition to which five branches were 
 established in Austria-Hungary and three in the 
 Netherlands that were subsidiary to the head office in 
 Germany. Of these no less than four were opened 
 in 1901, beginning with the office at Hamburg, which 
 w^'is established in February of that year. Following 
 is a list of the offices of The Mercantile Agency in 
 Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Netherlands, 
 with the dates on which they were established: 
 
 Berlin 1876 Munich 1906 
 
 Hamburg 1901 Budapest 1907 
 
 Bremen 1901 Prague 1907 
 
 Cologne 1901 Dresden 1907 
 
 Frankfort a M 1901 Dusseldorf 1907 
 
 Leipzig 1902 Plauen 1907 
 
 Breslau 1902 Stuttgart 1907 
 
 Magdeburg 1902 Elberfeld 1908 
 
 Amsterdam 1902 Trieste 1908 
 
 Vienna 1904 Strassburg 1908 
 
 Rotterdam 1905 Konigsberg 1912 
 
 Mannheim 1906 Saarbrucken 1912 
 
 Hanover 1906 Erfurt 1912 
 
 Nuremberg 1906 Lemberg 1914 
 
 Danzig 1906 The Hague 1914 
 
 Dortmund 1906 
 
 The year 1901 also witnessed a further expansion 
 
 of the Agency's service in Australia, an office being 
 
 160 
 
The JNIercantile Agency 
 
Seyexty-five Years of 
 
 established during that year at Sydney, New South 
 Wales. The Melbourne office had been in operation 
 since 1887, but was largely used for the purpose of 
 securing information regarding Australian traders 
 for the benefit of shippers in other parts of the world. 
 Under the new policy just inaugurated, the activities 
 of the Australian district began to include reporting 
 both Australian and foreign houses for the benefit 
 of Australian merchants and manufacturers. This 
 necessitated there, as elsewhere, a rapid expansion 
 of the facilities for collecting and recording the neces- 
 sary information. Instead of only carrying on their 
 records reports concerning houses engaged in foreign 
 trade, the Agency in Australia now sought to report 
 all traders just as was done in the United States and 
 Canada. The new branch at Sydney was made the 
 head office for the Commonwealth, which was pro- 
 claimed on January 1st of the very year of its establish- 
 ment. The subsequent expansion of the business of 
 The Mercantile Agency in Australasia was rapid. In 
 1902, a suboffice w^as established at Brisbane, the capi- 
 tal of Queensland. In 1903 suboffices were opened at 
 Adelaide, South Australia, and at Wellington, New 
 Zealand — that Dominion also forming a part of the 
 Sydney district. In 1908 three additional offices were 
 opened in Xew Zealand — at Auckland, Christchurch 
 and Dunedin — and in 1913 the Agency's chain of 
 offices in the state capitals of Australia was made com- 
 
 162 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
S E V E N T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 l^lete by the establishment of a branch at Perth, West- 
 ern Austraha. 
 
 The Paris office, like those at London and Berlin, 
 was greatly strengthened by the new policy enabling 
 it to do a local as well as an international business. 
 It was not until 1902 that this plan was extended to 
 
 the Paris district. The 
 effect was immediate. 
 In thirty years the 
 staff had only in- 
 creased from three 
 employees, the num- 
 ber in 1872, to five. 
 The very year of the 
 change in policy the 
 first suboffice w a s 
 opened at Brussels, 
 Belgium — and by the 
 following year the 
 staff at Paris had in- 
 creased to twenty. 
 The Paris district 
 comprised all of 
 Western Europe, in- 
 cluding France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Spain 
 and Portugal, together with Egypt, Tunis and Al- 
 geria. Altogether, the Paris staff has to translate 
 rejDorts in no less than twelve languages. The energy 
 with which the district was developed is indicated by 
 the fact that in 1903 suboffices were established at 
 
 fiydney, X. W., Office 
 Established mi 
 Chains House, Martin Place 
 
 164. 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 Barcelona, Si)ain; Havre and Lille, France; Zurich, 
 Switzerland, and INIilan, Italy. The complete list 
 of offices opened in these countries with their respec- 
 tive dates, is as follows: 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 Havre 1903 
 
 Lille 1903 
 
 Paris 1872 
 
 BELGIUM 
 
 Antwerp 1904- 
 
 Brussels 1902 
 
 Liege 1912 
 
 SWITZERLAND 
 Zurich 1903 
 
 PORTUGAL 
 
 Lisbon 1906 
 
 Oporto 1912 
 
 SPAIN 
 
 Barcelona 1903 
 
 Bilbao 1912 
 
 Madrid 1906 
 
 :\Ialaga 1912 
 
 Murcia 1912 
 
 Seville 1913 
 
 Valencia 1912 
 
 ITALY 
 
 Milan 1903 
 
 Naples 1912 
 
 Turin 1915 
 
 The year 1902, which marks the beginning of the 
 period of active development and expansion in the 
 business of The Mercantile Agency in Western 
 Europe, is also memorable as the date when the first 
 extension of its service was made to South America. 
 The pioneer office on that continent was located at 
 Buenos Aires, its district including not only Argen- 
 tina but the republics of Paraguay and Uruguay. A 
 suboffice was established at Rosario in 1913. In 1912, 
 in response to the urgent requests of business men in 
 that country, an independent branch office was opened 
 at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The chain of offices in 
 Latin America, which comprises in addition to the 
 three just mentioned seven in Mexico and one in Cuba, 
 
 166 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 has recently been supplemented by the establishment 
 of a branch at San Juan, Porto Rico. The other 
 islands in the Caribbean region — Spanish, English, 
 French, Danish and Dutch — are covered by an army of 
 correspondents located in every trading center. These 
 report direct to New York, as steamship communica- 
 
 The Paris Office, which was established in 1872, and is now located 
 at 5 Boulevard Montmartre, is the head office for France, 
 Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Portugal 
 
 tions between that port and the various ports of the 
 West Indies are more regular and frequent than 
 those between many of the islands themselves. 
 
 The rapid expansion of the foreign service of The 
 Mercantile Agency in 1901, 1902 and 1903 — no less 
 than 27 offices being opened abroad during those three 
 years — suggested to the management the desirability 
 
 167 
 
Seventy - FIVE Years of 
 
 Bilbao Office, estal)Ushed in 1912, and located at Calle Estacion 5, 
 "Edificio Aurora" 
 
 of publishing an International Edition of Dux^s Re- 
 view in order to link this world-wide chain of offices 
 together through a publication in which all would be 
 equally interested. Accordingly, in March, 1903, the 
 first number of Dux^s Ixterx^atiox^al Review was 
 issued. The publication met with immediate success, 
 
 Milayi Office, estahlished in 1903, and located at Via Orefici 1, 
 (Piazza del DiiomoJ 
 
 168 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 and a few months later a separate edition in Spanish 
 was inaugurated. It has since been published in two 
 monthly editions, English and Spanish, and is recog- 
 nized as a leader in the field of international jour- 
 nalism. Its advertis- 
 ing clients comprise 
 several hundred of 
 the leading manufac- 
 turers seeking foreign 
 markets, and it is in- 
 teresting to note that 
 its patronage has been 
 drawn from sixteen 
 different countries 
 and has included four 
 Governments. In this 
 respect it is more truly 
 an international paper 
 than any publication 
 in its field. A feature 
 of the International 
 Edition of Dun^s 
 Review of great value 
 to business men every- 
 where is its series of reports on trade conditions, pre- 
 pared by the managers of the foreign offices of The 
 Mercantile Agency or by the Review^s own corre- 
 spondents in countries where offices have not yet been 
 established. 
 
 Buenos Aires Office 
 Established W02 
 Banco Germanico Building 
 
 169 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 Another branch of the organization that is directly 
 due to the Agency's offices abroad is the Foreign De- 
 partment. Here are kept constantly on file the re- 
 ports regarding many thousands of concerns in every 
 part of the world. Whenever a report on any foreign 
 firm is requested in the United States or Canada 
 it is procured, if not already on file, and branch offices 
 al)road also send to New York all reports that are 
 likely to be inquired for there. In addition to these, 
 
 out waiting for the information to come from the 
 country in question, the data he needs to determine 
 his pros^^ect's credit responsibility being already re- 
 corded at New York. This is an inestimable benefit 
 to exporters, since a delay in the foreign trade fre- 
 quently means loss of orders. 
 
 Havana Office 
 Established 1899 
 Banco Xacional dc Cuha Building 
 
 copies of all reports 
 written up regarding 
 firms in South Amer- 
 ica, Central America 
 and the West Indies 
 are filed at New York. 
 This means that a 
 manufacturer doing 
 business abroad — and 
 especially in Latin 
 America and the West 
 Indies — can, in many 
 cases, secure a report 
 regarding a prospec- 
 tive customer with- 
 
 170 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 It should not be concluded from the amount of 
 space devoted in this chapter to the extension of The 
 Mercantile Agency in other lands that its growth in 
 the United States and Canada was arrested during 
 this period. On the contrary, the last fifteen years 
 have brought a steady 
 series of additions to 
 the Agency c h a i n. 
 Naturally, however, 
 most of the new offices 
 are in places of some- 
 what less importance 
 than those previously 
 established, owing to 
 the thoroughness 
 with which the new 
 offices opened in the 
 seventies and eighties 
 covered the more im- 
 portant points in 
 every district. The 
 list on page 172 shows 
 the new offices in the 
 United States and 
 Canada established 
 between 1891 and 
 
 July, 1916, with the date of each. Of these ten were in 
 Canada, all of them located in the Canadian North- 
 west. The principal development in the United States 
 was in the South, Southwest and West. 
 171 
 
 Eio de Janeiro Office 
 Established 1912 
 Jornal do Brasil Building 
 
Seventy - FIVE Years of 
 
 Vancouver 1891 
 
 Winston-Salem 1891 
 
 Trenton 1892 
 
 Quebec 1892 
 
 Ottawa 1892 
 
 Wilkes-Barre 1892 
 
 Zanesville 1893 
 
 Charleston, W. Va. . .1893 
 
 Canton, 1895 
 
 Menominee 1898 
 
 Oklahoma 1902 
 
 Youngstown 1902 
 
 Beaumont 1902 
 
 Meridian 1902 
 
 Selma 1902 
 
 Columbia, S. C 1902 
 
 Green Bay 1903 
 
 Albuquerque 1903 
 
 Tampa 1905 
 
 Waterloo 1905 
 
 Calgary 1906 
 
 Harrisburg 1908 
 
 Muskogee 1909 
 
 Pensacola 1909 
 
 Greenville 1910 
 
 Edmonton 1910 
 
 Butte 1910 
 
 Regina 1910 
 
 Saskatoon 1910 
 
 Easton 1910 
 
 Victoria, B. C 1910 
 
 Beaver Falls 1911 
 
 Abilene 1911 
 
 Amarillo 1911 
 
 San Diego 1911 
 
 Moose Jaw 1912 
 
 Lethbridge 1913 
 
 Jamestown 1914 
 
 Oakland 1914 
 
 Sacramento 1914 
 
 Phoenix 1914 
 
 Paterson 1914 
 
 Tulsa 1916 
 
 Terre Haute 1916 
 
 New Mezzanine Gallery on first floor of the Dun Building 
 Where the dictaphone operators of the Citii Department are 
 loeated. Dictaphones are largely used in this Department 
 
 172 
 
The JNIercaxtile Agency 
 
 As early as 1860 a printing department was 
 established to take care of the Reference Book and 
 the numerous forms used in the business. This plant 
 was first located at 10-12 Reade Street. In JNIay, 
 1871, it was removed to 83 Centre Street, where it was 
 totally destroyed by fire on Christmas eve, 1872. The 
 next location was at 148 Worth Street, and in 1882 a 
 large printing house was erected at 57-59 Park Street. 
 Here an entire floor 
 was occupied by the 
 presses on which the 
 Reference Books were 
 printed, the second 
 floor was arranged for 
 the compositors and 
 proofreaders, while 
 the third contained 
 the job dei^artment 
 where blanks and 
 other stationer}^ were 
 printed. The bindery 
 occupied the remain- 
 der of the third floor 
 and the whole of the fourth and fifth. The cases on 
 the second floor in this building contained more than 
 seventy-five tons of agate type alone, and the entire 
 plant was valued at upward of $250,000. 
 
 The growth of the business, however, made even 
 this plant inadequate, and an additional building was 
 erected for the presses on which the Ixterxatioxal 
 
 173 
 
 Charleston, W. Va., Office 
 Established 1893 
 Citizens' National Bank Building 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 Review was printed as early as 190."5. The increase in 
 the size of the Reference Book and in the numher of 
 copies required presently made the entire establishment 
 overcrowded, especially at the seasons when the work 
 on the January and July books was going on. In 1913 
 the City of New York acquired the site occupied by 
 the Park Street plant for the proposed civic center 
 in connection with the new Court House, and the firm 
 then began the erection of a new and much larger 
 printing house at the 
 northwest corner of 
 Butler and X e v i n s 
 Streets, in the Bor- 
 ough of Brooklyn. 
 
 This establishment, 
 wliich was completed 
 and occupied on Au- 
 gust 1st, 1914, is re- 
 garded as one of the 
 most up-to-date print- 
 ing offices in the 
 United States. The building is of reinforced con- 
 crete, 200 feet long by 100 feet wide, and is four 
 stories in height. On the ground floor are located the 
 office of the Superintendent, the pressroom and the 
 shipping and stock rooms. The pressroom contains 
 eight flat-bed presses and two Cottrell rotary presses 
 of the latest type, capable of printing on both sides, 
 folding and delivering eighty-five 32-page forms of 
 the Reference Book per minute. There are also five 
 
 Butte, Mont., Office 
 E.stahlished 1910 
 First Xational Bank BuUding 
 
 174 
 
The Mercantile Agexcy 
 
 job platen presses for short runs and miscellaneous 
 job work. On the second floor are 10 linotype 
 machines, the entire Reference Book now being set on 
 these machines instead of by hand composition as 
 before. Adjacent to the machines are the cabinets 
 where the 3,174 page 
 forms of the book are 
 kept in numbered 
 racks, ready to be 
 taken out at any time 
 for corrections, and 
 then sent to the stereo- 
 type room, which is on 
 the same floor, w^iere 
 plates are made for 
 the pressroom. The 
 third floor contains the 
 bindery, w h i c h has 
 been modernized 
 throughout to corre- 
 spond with the other 
 branches of the new 
 plant, and is now able 
 to bind close to 1,000 
 copies of the Refer- 
 ence Book per day. In addition to printing and bind- 
 ing the Reference Book, the printing house prints and 
 binds the weekly and monthly editions of Dux's Re- 
 viEAr and the pocket editions of the Reference Book, 
 besides turning out stationery and forms for the vari- 
 175 
 
 Old Printing House of R. G. DUX tC- CO. 
 at 57-59 Park Street 
 Occupied from 1882 to 191', 
 
S E A' E N T Y - F I V E Y E A R S OF 
 
 Oils offices throiio'hoiit the country. INIotor cars cany 
 work between this de])artnient and the head office, and 
 dehver Reference Books throughout the city. 
 
 With the opening of the office at Terre Haute, 
 Ind., in July, 1916, the number of offices in The ]Mer- 
 cantile Agency amounted to 243, besides 24 reporting 
 stations, some of which are as large as offices. The 
 
 imiillllli I 
 
 yew Printing House of R. G. Dl X d CO. 
 Corner of Butler and Xevins Streets, in the Borough of Brooklyn. 
 Reinforced concrete, four stories high, 200 feet long and 100 feet wide 
 
 epoch-making changes produced by the world war will 
 necessitate new extensions in the foreign field, while 
 the process of ceaseless growth in the United States 
 and Canada will bring about gradual additions to the 
 Agency's chain of offices in this country and in the 
 Dominion. Considered in its broadest sense, the func- 
 tion of The Mercantile Agency is to keep abreast of 
 
 176 
 
The JNIercaxtile Agency 
 
 the progress of mankind in all matters relating 
 to credit. As the pioneers of civilization have pushed 
 
 Portion of the pressroom, showing flat-hed presses used for print- 
 ing the weekly and monthly editions of Dux's Review 
 
 farther into the undeveloped regions of the world the 
 Agency has followed them, for capital as well as labor 
 
 The two Cottrell rotary presses for printing the Reference Book. 
 Each machine prints, folds and delivers 2,720 pages per minute 
 
 is needed in all such enterprises, and capital can never 
 be forthcoming unless the credit qualifications of those 
 who seek it have first been carefully determined. 
 
 177 
 
Seventy-five Years of 
 
 When The ^lercaiitile Agency was estahhshed 
 at Xew York hy Lewis Tappan in 1841 it was the first 
 institution of its kind in the workl. Under Benjamin 
 Dougkass it was strengthened as to its poHcies and 
 methods and made national in scope. Under Rohert 
 Graham Dun it was expanded until it covered the 
 United States and Canada with a network of offices, 
 
 The composing room in the Printing House, shoxciny hatterij of 
 linotype machines (at left) and part of the cabinets in ichich 
 the page forms of the Reference Bool: are kept 
 
 while the volume of its transactions far exceeded the 
 w^ildest visions of its founders. Under Robert Dun 
 Douglass it has been once more expanded into a world- 
 wide organization, and the magnitude of its trans- 
 actions again multiplied. 
 
 Robert Dun Douglass first entered the service of 
 the Agency in 1872 and has been intimately associated 
 
 178 
 
The Mercaxtile Agency 
 
 with its management ever since — a period of forty- 
 fom' years. Most of those connected with the great 
 institution to-day have known no other chief, and in 
 them all he has inspired an intense spirit of loyalty to 
 the Agency and of personal devotion to himself. On 
 January 1st, 1910, Mr. Douglass decided to relinquish 
 the cares and responsibilities of general manager, but 
 as one of the Trustees he continues to direct the 
 policies of the business and to promote its further ex- 
 pansion and prosperity. 
 
 Closely associated with jNIr. Douglass in the direc- 
 tion of the Agency in recent years have been his fellow 
 Trustees, Francis L. JNIinton and Joseph Packard. 
 Mr. Minton has been connected with the institution, 
 as an adviser and director, for more than forty years, 
 and has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 
 the death of ^Ir. Dun. His tireless energy, extensive 
 legal knowledge and sound judgment have contrib- 
 uted materially to the progress of the organization 
 throughout the period covered by this chapter. An- 
 other pilot of the business for over forty years is Ben- 
 jamin Douglass, Jr., whose judicious judgment has 
 often been of inestimable service to the executives of 
 the institution, and whose vision has never been 
 clouded by any ill-temper nor distorted by any un- 
 worthy purpose. The present General ]Manager of 
 The ISIercantile Agency is A. W. Ferguson, who 
 has occupied that position since 1910. In a rec- 
 ord covering nearly three generations it is impos- 
 sible to mention individually the hundreds of mana- 
 
 179 
 
Sevexty-five Years of 
 
 gers and heads of departments whose work, in their 
 respective fields, has contributed so much to the suc- 
 cess of the organization. In a way this entire history 
 is a tribute to them, since — but for their efficiency in 
 their respective tasks, their loyalty and devotion to 
 the organization as a whole — this record of 75 years of 
 continuous progress would never have been written. 
 
 Almost from its very inception, the words "For 
 the Promotion and Protection of Trade" have been 
 the motto of The Mercantile Agency. For seventy- 
 five years every effort of the institution has been direct- 
 ed to fulfilling the mission expressed by that motto. As 
 it has grown greater, as its operations have been ex- 
 tended into broader fields, as its activities have become 
 more complex, it has been enabled to fulfill that mis- 
 sion to a higher degree. To-day its methods repre- 
 sent the accumulated exj^erience, and its vast collec- 
 tions of reports the accumulated information of three- 
 quarters of a century. As its annals show, the process 
 of improvement has been continuous during all these 
 years, yet the cost of the Agency's service to its sub- 
 scribers is actually less than it was in 1841. 
 
 In an Agency circular published thirty-five years 
 ago appears the following passage: 
 
 The advance made in business facilities is greater 
 than the improvement attained in any other department 
 of human activity. The telegraph, the telephone, rail- 
 roads ; cheap, frequent and rapid posts ; banking, insur- 
 ance, expressage, exchanges and associations with limit- 
 ed liability — are all agencies so common in every day's 
 experience that one hardly realizes how recent is the in- 
 
 180 
 
The Mercantile Agency 
 
 troduction of most of them into ordinary use. Yet, 
 notwithstanding the perfection in the growth of all 
 business facilities, uncertainties attend every business 
 man's career, and none are more disastrous than the 
 losses incurred by the injudicious granting of credits. 
 The first organized effort ever made to lessen the 
 chances of loss in this direction is The Mercantile 
 Agency. 
 
 While its object has remained unchanged, the 
 facihties for attaining that object have enlarged far 
 beyond the dreams of its founders. As the foregoing 
 pages show, the growth of the institution has kept 
 pace with the growth of the nation, and in the last 
 twenty-five years its expansion has been world-wide 
 in response to the vast increase in international com- 
 merce and the rapid development of far-off regions 
 like Australia and South Africa. 
 
 Modern commerce is based upon credit to an ex- 
 tent scarcely realized by those who have not given 
 the subject special attention. Credit is founded upon 
 confidence, and confidence, in turn, is derived from 
 accurate and impartial information. The commercial 
 world now realizes more than ever before the extent 
 of its reliance upon such a service as The JVIercantile 
 Agency was expressly designed to supply, and to the 
 improvement of which it has devoted seventy-five 
 years of continuous effort and accumulated experi- 
 ence. It is hoped that this outline of the annals of 
 the Agency will enable those who are associated with 
 it to realize more fully the greatness of the institution 
 of which they form a part, and increase their pride 
 in it and in their work. It is also hoped that the book 
 181 
 
Se VEX TY - FIVE YeARS OF 
 
 may assist those who are engaged in the granting of 
 credits to a better understanding of the history of 
 The ^Mercantile xVgency, and that students of eco- 
 nomic and of business methods will find it valuable as 
 the record of an institution that was the first of its 
 kind, and that has been, throughout its long history, 
 a pioneer in bringing about sound credit conditions 
 for the promotion and protection of trade throughout 
 the world. 
 
 182 
 
i p 
 
 iilllll