Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-24hb2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T14:58:48.983Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Bank Mergers in Late Nineteenth-Century New England: The Contingent Nature of Structural Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Naomi R. Lamoreaux
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of History, Brown University, Providence, RI02912, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Abstract

Although New England's unit banking system was declining in profitability during the late nineteenth century, the existing competitive environment prevented large institutions from outperforming their smaller rivals. As a result, there was little change in the structure of the banking system during this period. At the turn of the century, however, a wave of mergers radically transformed the banking sectors of Boston and Providence. Although the greater profitability of the mergers indicates they were a better fit to the economic environment than their smaller predecessors, their creation was only made possible by a special combination of historical circumstances.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Baltensperger, Ernst, “Economies of Scale, Firm Size, and Concentration in Banking,” Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 4 (08 1972), pp. 467–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benston, George J., “Economies of Scale of Financial Institutions,” Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 4 (05 1972), pp. 312–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benston, George J., Hanweck, Gerald A., and Humphrey, David B., “Scale Economies in Banking: A Restructuring and Reassessment,” Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 14 (11 1982), pp. 435–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boston Evening Transcript (various dates).Google Scholar
Boston News Bureau (various dates).Google Scholar
Bristol (RI) Phoenix (various dates).Google Scholar
Cannon, James G., “Profit or Loss on Bank Accounts,” Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Convention of the American Bankers' Association (New York, 1894), pp. 4246.Google Scholar
Capie, Forrest, “Structure and Performance in British Banking, 1870–1939,” in Cottrell, P. L. and Moggridge, D. E., eds., Money and Power: Essays in Honour of L. S. Pressnell (Hampshire, England, 1988), pp. 8089.Google Scholar
Clarke, Roger, and McGuinness, Tony, eds., The Economics of the Firm (Oxford, 1987).Google Scholar
Dun R. G., & Company Collection, Baker Library, Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Elbaum, Bernard, and Lazonick, William, “The Decline of the British Economy: An Institutional Perspective,” this JOURNA, 44 (06 1984), pp. 567–83.Google Scholar
Elbaum, Bernard, and Lazonick, William, eds., The Decline of the British Economy (Oxford, 1986).Google Scholar
Fourth National Bank of Boston, Records of, Bank of Boston Archives.Google Scholar
Goddard Brothers Diaries, Brown & Ives Manufacturing Records, Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscript Collections, MSS 9, Sub Group 10, Series D.Google Scholar
Gramley, Lyle E., Scale Economies in Banking (Kansas City, 1962).Google Scholar
Homer, Sidney, A History of Interest Rates (New Brunswick, 1963).Google Scholar
Industrial Trust Company of Providence, Records of, Fleet National Bank Archives.Google Scholar
James, John A., Money and Capital Markets in Postbellum America (Princeton, 1978).Google Scholar
Kilburn, Frederick D., “Payment of Interest by Discount Banks upon Commercial Deposits,” in Hull, Walter Henry, ed., Practical Problems in Banking and Currency (New York, 1907), pp. 7787.Google Scholar
Knowles, Asa S., Shawmut: 150 Years of Banking (Boston, 1986).Google Scholar
Kolari, James, and Zardkoohi, Asghar, Bank Costs, Structure, and Performance (Lexington, MA, 1987).Google Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R., “Banks, Kinship, and Economic Development: The New England Case,” this JOURNAL, 46 (09 1986), pp. 647–67.Google Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R., “Banks and Insider Lending in Jacksonian New England: A Window on Social Structure and Values” (Unpublished Manuscript, 1988, available from the author).Google Scholar
Lazonick, William, “Competition, Specialization, and Industrial Decline,” this JOURNAL, 41 (03 1981), pp. 3138.Google Scholar
Lazonick, William, “Industrial Organization and Technological Change: The Decline of the British Cotton Industry,” Business History Review, 57 (Summer 1983), pp. 195236.Google Scholar
Lazonick, William, and Maas, William, “The Performance of the British Cotton Industry, 1870–1913,” Research in Economic History, 9 (1984), pp. 144.Google Scholar
Maine, , Bank Commissioners, Annual Report (Augusta, various years).Google Scholar
Martin, Joseph G., A Century of Finance: Martin's History of the Boston Stock and Money Markets (Boston, 1898).Google Scholar
Massachusetts, Bank Commissioner, Annual Report (Boston, various years).Google Scholar
Massachusetts, Board of Commissioners of Savings Banks, Annual Report (Boston, various years).Google Scholar
Massachusetts, Savings Bank Commissioner, Annual Report (Boston, various years).Google Scholar
Massachusetts, Secretary of the Commonwealth, Abstracts of the Returns from the Banks (Boston, various years).Google Scholar
National Bank of Rhode Island, Newport, Records of, Fleet National Bank Archives. National Warren Bank, Warren, Rhode Island, Records of, Fleet National Bank Archives.Google Scholar
New Hampshire, Bank Commissioners, Annual Report (Concord, various years).Google Scholar
Newport (RI) Daily News (various dates).Google Scholar
Pacific National Bank of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Records of, Fleet National Bank Archives.Google Scholar
Patten, Claudius B., The Methods and Machinery of Practical Banking (1st edn., 1891; 7th edn., New York, 1896).Google Scholar
Pawtucket (RI) Evening Times (various dates).Google Scholar
Piggott, Fred, 170 Years of Service: 1791–1961 (Providence, 1961).Google Scholar
Pratt, John W., and Zeckhauser, Richard J., eds., Principals and Agents: The Structure of Business (Boston, 1985).Google Scholar
Providence Journal (various dates).Google Scholar
Pullen, E. H., “Thirty-seven Years in a Bank,” Bankers' Magazine, 57 (09 1898), pp. 465–73.Google Scholar
Raff, Daniel, and Temin, Peter, “Business History and Economic Theory: Imperfect Information, Agency, and the Internal Organization of Firms,” in Temin, Peter, ed., Inside the Business Enterprise: The Use and Transformation of Information (Chicago, forthcoming).Google Scholar
Rhode, Island, Bank Commissioner, Annual Report (Providence, various years).Google Scholar
Rhode, Island, State Auditor, Annual Statement Exhibiting the Condition of the Banks (Providence, various years).Google Scholar
Rhodes' Journal of Banking (various dates).Google Scholar
Ricketts, Martin, The New Industrial Economics: An Introduction to Modern Theories of the Firm (New York, 1987).Google Scholar
Sylla, Richard Eugene, The American Capital Market, 1846–1914: A Study of the Effects of Public Policy on Economic Development (New York, 1975).Google Scholar
U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, Annual Report (Washington, DC, various years).Google Scholar
U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, Records of the Examination Division, National Archives, Record Group 101.Google Scholar
Warren (RI) Gazette (various dates).Google Scholar
Westerly (RI) Daily Sun (various dates).Google Scholar
Weston, Frank, The Passing Years: 1791 to 1966 (Providence, 1966).Google Scholar
White, Eugene Nelson, “The Merger Movement in Banking, 1919–1933,” this JOURNAL, 45 (06 1985), pp. 285–91.Google Scholar
Wickford (RI) Standard (various dates).Google Scholar
Woonsocket (RI) Evening Call (various dates).Google Scholar