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1 - Under a Buttonwood Tree

from The First Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2022

Seth C. Oranburg
Seth C. Oranburg
Affiliation:
Duquesne University, Pittsburgh
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Summary

Chapter 1 introduces the corporate form with a brief review of key corporate concepts, including corporate limited liability, corporate investors, corporate risk and reward, and corporate fraud. Corporate terms are tied with simple, but illustrative, economic analysis. This chapter discusses early financial history in the U.S., including the origins of the New York Stock exchange—formed by the so-called Buttonwood Agreement—the role of banking corporations, the Jacksonian era, though the free banking era. America has always been a capitalist nation, but the founding fathers’ debates continue to this day between Jeffersonian-Jacksonian populists (who supported small businesses and agrarian communities) and Madisonian-Hamiltonian federalists (who trusted large banks and centralized governments). Easy- to-form corporate entities exemplify a legal innovation that enabled massive financial innovation; namely, stock (equity) investment on a large scale. Meanwhile, the Buttonwood Agreement, though not an official government document, demonstrates an early form of financial self-regulation.

Keywords

nature of corporationshistory of New York Stock Exchangebanking corporationsfree banking era
Type
Chapter
Information
A History of Financial Technology and Regulation
From American Incorporation to Cryptocurrency and Crowdfunding
 , pp. 7 - 23
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Under a Buttonwood Tree
  • Seth C. Oranburg, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh
  • Book: A History of Financial Technology and Regulation
  • Online publication: 24 March 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316597736.002
Available formats
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  • Under a Buttonwood Tree
  • Seth C. Oranburg, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh
  • Book: A History of Financial Technology and Regulation
  • Online publication: 24 March 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316597736.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Under a Buttonwood Tree
  • Seth C. Oranburg, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh
  • Book: A History of Financial Technology and Regulation
  • Online publication: 24 March 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316597736.002
Available formats
×