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Show I ysorica . J highlights I't C-ait Reporter. m l r tlU'"k lwo bor. " d lappa,, (or tllilt convenience or vour Htu,,,v t0 .,Hly u oi( tl; A";;1:. "ih".v -vir edu r,uillfi, . ut M e,Ms n.ppa,, were the ft .epo,tels. Tu.y esU.bli.slu.d uu l.usu.cs, just 100 years ll(!0. 'l-u- .lo.ns so was one of the re-ul.s re-ul.s ot the panic of !m7, (he tlrst .reat Unatu-ul dt.sa.s.er in America. A . u,r a,ul Lewis Tappan were na-t.wsof na-t.wsof Massaclmseus. In UU4 thev MablL-luvi a my kooos business In 1'oston. importing most of their Koo.ls from I'n.l.uut. Thev were jeiy successful mul accumulated a l-'f.e fortune. Then they branched out and m ttS'JT became silk merchants mer-chants m New York and financial sponsors of button manufacture tin-dor tin-dor the name of Arthur Tappan and (. o Kor 111 years they prospered in N. " York- rut when tlie panic of l.-v.;: hit the country, among its first victims were Uie Tappans. Their failure was the result of the "freez-i.;" "freez-i.;" of hundreds of thousands of dollars owed them by country merchants. mer-chants. Although they re-established their business within 18 months, this disaster gave Lewis Tappan an idea. He realised that the method of granting credits to country merchants, mer-chants, often on forged letters of introduction, was not only unreliable but out-of-date. True, a few of the IT. mm American importers had individual individ-ual credit reporters and others cooperated co-operated to hire one. But the expense ex-pense cf sending a credit reporter ir.to the West and South was too great even for a group of importers. So he proposed the establishment of a mercantile agency, the function cf which was to serve as a central orTice of credit information. This information in-formation would consist of the contributed con-tributed experiences of the leading importers, commission houses, wholesalers and bankers w-hich would be supplemented by the reports re-ports of correspondents appointed in every community. After their disastrous experience with the old slipshod methods of extending credit, all of these business busi-ness men were quite willing to listen to Tappan's proposal. So the first credit rcDorting agency was opened in New York on August 1, 1841. and was a success from the start. Soon two voung men came into the company com-pany who did a great deal to develop the credit reporting business. They were Benjamin Douglas, the son of a West India trader, who joined the firm in 1346, and Robert Graham Dun of Ohio, who came in i8o4. In 1859 young Dun purchased full control of the company and the Tappans retired from the business to devote their time to the var.ous philanthropies and social reforms m which they were interested Mean-while Mean-while John M. Bradstreet had established estab-lished a similar credit reporting ; 1H40 For 85 years the company in 184a. ' .,. two companies were competitors. Then in 1933 the Bradstreet com-a com-a v. G Dun and Company medrgRedGtoDform the famous combination of "Dun and Brad street" which has become synonymous synony-mous with the word "credit. In 1859, when Dun bought out the Tappans the first "credit re erenc b00V was published a nd tcon okd.-2L0rs:emndantTtf2:300,000 Erne's of commercial enterprises in ,n nr,n Hifferent communities! more and is the largest publishing ven "re of its kind in the world. Tt interesting to note that among neer credit Pte Lincolnj ture Pres.den-Abh Ulysses S. Grant, w and William McKinley. ists. Art(hur ,TaavPerin their flight aided f"8'tlve,S'aeV "scued William j northward and he resc Lloyd Garrison. edHr timore. He w ' 6(,c;tty and , AmerlC3,nd $ 0 0 month to it, contributed $1.""" , support for several ys. |