This study of the role of institutions and organizations in the establishment of capital structures to finance the activities of large-scale business enterprises was begun by Jonathan Barron Baskin. My connection with the undertaking began when I was asked to review Baskin's original work. I was very favorably impressed by the approach of that work in explaining how the persistent problem of asymmetric information that divides the interests of corporate managers and investors shaped institutional arrangements in finance, a point brilliantly developed in Baskin's essay “The Development of Corporate Financial Markets in Britain and the United States, 1600- 1914: Overcoming Asymmetric Information,” which appeared in the Business History Review and won the Newcomen Society Prize in 1988.

My review suggested that the study might be strengthened if its focus was broadened by incorporating more examples of how particular firms or classes of firms historically resolved the capital structure puzzle. Besides bolstering the persuasiveness of the study's central findings, such an approach would provide support for Baskin's argument that theory building in finance could be enriched by a better blending of historical and quantitative research methods. A new synthesis could be achieved by reinterpreting the findings of a broad body of historical studies using the analytical constructs that guide contemporary financial research.

Baskin's revision was cut short by his untimely death. The project eventually moved forward again because of the loving commitment of Paul W. Fink, who, cherishing the memory of his gifted son, wished to see his major contribution to scholarship in financial history brought to fruition.