Enterprising America : businesses, banks, and credit markets in historical perspective / edited by William J. Collins and Robert A. Margo.

Papers of the conference "Enterprising America: businesses, banks, and credit markets in historical perspective", held at Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN, on December 14, 2013.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction / William J. Collins and Robert A. Margo -- Business organization and internal governance. Revisiting American exceptionalism: democracy and the regulation of corporate governance: the case of nineteenth-century Pennsylvania in comparative context / Naomi R. Lamoreaux -- Corporate governance and the development of manufacturing enterprises in nineteenth-century Massachusetts / Eric Hilt ; comment: Claudia Rei ; The evolution of bank boards of directors in New York,1840-1950 / Howard Bodenhorn and Eugene N. White -- Bank behavior and credit markets. Did railroads make antebellum U.S. banks more sound? / Jeremy Atack, Matthew S. Jaremski, and Peter L. Rousseau ; Sources of credit and the extent of the credit market: a view from bankruptcy records, Mississippi 1929-1936 / Mary Eschelbach Hansen -- Scale economies in nineteenth century production. Economies of scale in nineteenth century American manufacturing revisited: a resolution of the entrepreneurial labor input problem / Robert A. Margo ; Were antebellum cotton plantations factories in the field? / Alan L. Olmstead and Paul W. Rhode.

Print version record.

The rise of America from a colonial outpost to one of the world's most sophisticated and productive economies was facilitated by the establishment of a variety of economic enterprises pursued within the framework of laws and institutions that set the rules for their organization and operation. To better understand the historical processes central to American economic development, 'Enterprising America' brings together contributors who address the economic behaviour of American firms and financial institutions - and the associated legal institutions that shaped their behaviour - throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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