ABSTRACT
The first concentrated activity in the trust company movement came in the decade following the end of the Civil War. In 1870 the New York State Legislature introduced 13 bills that sought to incorporate trust companies in New York City; 25 were introduced in 1871; 11 in 1872; and 13 in 1873—a total of 62 companies in all. New York State commercial banks were chartered, in the 1870-3 period, under the free banking law originally passed in 1838. This chapter closes with a study of the founding of Central Trust Company. It illuminates the actual process of organizing one of the most successful financial intermediaries in the nation. Central Trust was far and away the most important and successful company to emerge from the 1870-3 period. The capital market itself acted as a regulator of the trust company development in the 1870-3 period.
