Episode 1 of 2
Founding of The Mercantile Agency
- When
- July 20, 1841
- Where
- New York City
Lewis Tappan founded The Mercantile Agency in New York City on July 20, 1841, establishing the first commercial credit-rating agency in the city.
Tappan recognized the need for a centralized credit reporting system. He formed the company to create a network of correspondents who would provide reliable, objective credit information to subscribers. The agency was the precursor to Dun & Bradstreet and modern credit-reporting services.
Sources
- Dun & Bradstreet Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-15
- Lewis Tappan Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-01
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.