ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes a conceptual framework for the role of regional markets in capital mobilization and for the economic foundations which determine the extent of financial market development within a region. It illustrates the dominant role of San Francisco and San Francisco merchants in commercial patterns on the Coast. The networks of information and the mercantile wealth centered on San Francisco represented the foundations of the financial market which spanned the Pacific Coast region by the early 1880s. The book discusses some of the institutions-commercial banks, bank correspondents, life insurance companies, and stock exchanges-which were headquartered in San Francisco and which had links throughout the region. It utilizes measures of interest rate coordination within the region to estimate the level of market integration. The book concludes with some conjectures about the puzzle of postbellum Southern stagnation.
