Sources of Credit for a Frontier Lumber Company: The Daniel Shaw Lumber Company as a Type Study

A. R. Reynolds

Business History Review, 1950, vol. 24, issue 4, 184-195

Abstract: Throughout American history the frontier was plagued by a shortage of capital and credit. The small pioneer farmer who migrated westward to take up cheap or free land needed capital or credit to build his homestead, secure tools and supplies, and provide for the immediate needs of himself and his family until the farm became self-sustaining. Likewise, men who wished to engage in commercial and industrial enterprises on the frontier had to have adequate capital or credit facilities to establish their businesses and to continue operations until the regular marketing of their products made the project self-supporting. The characteristic frontiersman was optimistic about the future and desired to enlarge his capital investment by expanding his landholding or his business in the expectation that future prosperity would create a greater demand for his produce—he believed that the larger the scale of his operations the greater the profits he would reap. His investments and operations, therefore, tended to outrun his own capital, and he characteristically turned to others for help. Since all elements in a frontier society were handicapped by the insufficiency of capital, and its handmaiden, credit, only limited aid could be expected from the frontier community. Assistance from the more stabilized eastern regions was necessary if the pioneer effort was to expand and prosper.

Date: 1950
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/ ... type/journal_article link to article abstract page (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:buhirw:v:24:y:1950:i:04:p:184-195_02

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Business History Review from Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press, UPH, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8BS UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Kirk Stebbing ().