Eastern Money and Western Mortgages in the 1870s

H. Peers Brewer

Business History Review, 1976, vol. 50, issue 3, 356-380

Abstract: As the westward movement gained momentum after the Civil War, the demand for farm mortgage credit grew rapidly. At the same time, the supply of lendable funds in the East and especially in Europe, although continuing to grow, turned away from U.S. government securities and American railroad bonds. The time seemed ripe for Eastern capitalists to expand their non-bank financial services to include intermediation between lenders and borrowers. Using the United States Mortgage Company and the Mercantile Trust Company as examples, Mr. Brewer shows that the opportunity was lost due to poor organization and management, faulty communication, and most of all to an innate conservatism and mistrust of the unfamiliar that caused the companies to disapprove the bulk of the mortgage loan applications that energetic field agents brought in.

Date: 1976
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