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| For two generations following the American Revolution, citizens looked upon their new nation's economy with anticipation and hope. Many believed that foreign nations' doubts and crushing state and individual debts in the wake of the Revolution would vanish in the midst of new commercial and manufacturing opportunities. But in a world still based more on good personal reputation than on secure institutions to regulate behavior and promote development, risk and uncertainty remained high. Dependence on foreign markets, unpredictable price swings, periodic scarcities or gluts of goods, personal miscalculations or outright deceit, and even bad weather persisted in the early republic without many safeguards against them. | |
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first, responses to the increasingly competitive economy echoed very old
practices. Would-be market participants
-- merchants, craftsmen, professionals, farmers -- cemented kinship networks,
double-checked rumor, and demanded reliable reputations of their business
associates. But slowly, Americans
put into place the newspapers, credit ratings agencies, insurance and brokerage
companies, and other mechanisms that would help mitigate some of the blows
experienced by thousands of small investors in the early republic. Banks began to proliferate; in time, laws,
court decisions, and new business institutions would, to an important extent,
reduce entrepreneurial risks, safeguard reputation, and invite the creation
of myriad new enterprises.
This one-day conference will showcase important new work about these areas of risk where entrepreneurs, planters, and manufacturers created different kinds of hedges to protect their ways of life, and in turn helped to secure America's wider economic culture. In addition, this conference coincides with the 250th anniversary of the founding by Benjamin Franklin of the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss of Fire -- America's first fire insurance company. |
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The Library Company of Philadelphia,
1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107 (215) 546-3181 Fax
215-546-5167 Questions or Comments Contact the Website Coordinator nscalessa@librarycompany.org
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