ABSTRACT
Work in economic history before and after World War 1 placed a great deal of emphasis on the geographical aspects of market structure and economic behavior. The economic history of the United States between 1850 and 1920 has provided useful material for the study of the development of financial institutions. While the accumulation of capital is important in economic growth, the mobilization of that capital is equally important. The neoclassical tradition in economics leads them to expect a wide range of well-functioning markets that mobilize all types of goods and resources. The advance of the "new economic history" which combined neoclassical theory with improved historical data collection created a whole new group of participants in the national capital market development debate. The common thread binding all these macroeconomic studies in the new economic history is the use of broad regional aggregates in their interest rate estimates and/or their conclusions about capital mobility.
