This book, first published in 1989, surveys higher education in preparation for business careers, particularly the fledgling profession of accounting. Examining the origins of English schooling for merchants, it brings to light articles and writers from the eighteenth century who proposed a liberal education for business – a key part of the development of the history of accounting.

In the growing and dynamic economy of nineteenth-century America, businesses sold vast quantities of goods to one another, mostly on credit. This book explains how business people solved the problem of whom to trust--how they determined who was deserving of credit, and for how much. Rowena Olegario traces the way resistance, mutual suspicion, skepticism, and legal challenges were overcome in the relentless quest to make information on business borrowers more accurate and available.