European University Institute Library

Insider lending, banks, personal connections, and economic development in industrial New England, Naomi R. Lamoreaux

eng

index present

non fiction

Insider lending

electronic resource

dictionaries

47009063

Naomi R. Lamoreaux

Cambridge Social Sciences eBooks

banks, personal connections, and economic development in industrial New England

The term insider lending conveys an aura of abuse and corruption, of unethical, if not illegal, behaviour. In early nineteenth-century New England, however, insider lending was an integral aspect of the banking system. Not only was the practice an accepted fact of economic life, but, as Naomi R. Lamoreaux argues, it enabled banks (at least in this particular historical context) to play an important role in financing economic development. As the banking system evolved over the course of the century, however, lending practices became more impersonal and professional. Ironically, the information problems banks faced when they began to conduct more and more of their business at arm's length forced them to concentrate on providing short-term loans to commercial borrowers and to give up financing economic development. This book was first published in 1994.--, Provided by publisher

1. Vehicles for accumulating capital -- 2. Insider lending and Jacksonian hostility toward banks -- 3. Engines of economic development -- 4. The decline of insider lending and the problem of determining creditworthiness -- 5. Professionalization and specialization -- 6. The merger movement in banking