In 1852 the Secretary of the Treasury reported that there were “no incorporated banks in regular and active operation” in Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Texas, and Wisconsin—seven of the thirty-one states then in existence—in the District of Columbia, nor in the two organized territories, Minnesota and Oregon. In most of these jurisdictions corporate banking was constitutionally prohibited; in others it was kept out by current opposition. At the same time it was a state-controlled monopoly in Indiana and Missouri, as it was a little later in Iowa. Going to the opposite extreme, Michigan in 1838 made banking free. Her experiment was eventually repeated by Illinois, by Wisconsin, and by Indiana. Meanwhile, there were unincorporated banks throughout the region, though their creation of credit was probably small compared with that of incorporated banks.

The subject of technology, it has long been agreed, is of vital interest to the economic historian, as well as to the historian of science. the latter connection my ignorance is such that I can do no more than make a few hesitant observations, largely inspired by a very competent adviser. In the former connection I should presumably speak with greater assurance, because my own research for a good many years has been concerned with medieval society. But with regard the difficult problem of technological advance and its significance, must confess that I can ask many more questions than I can answer—as will be seen from what follows. Such questions must be faced by anyone who considers history more than an antiquarian hobby. For what phase of historical investigation can be more important than the development of the industrial society in which we live ? Precisely where is taking mankind nobody knows. We historians—medievalists and others—must at least remark its novelty and try better to understand it by explaining its origins.

Defense of a historical survey of the business corporation in this country seems hardly necessary. Students of its place in the present economy, even students of the well-recorded “trust” movement of the 1890's and later decades, need this background, if only to test the hypothesis, not infrequently encountered, that the business corporation of pre-Civil War days was largely confined to the fields of banking, insurance, and public utilities.