This article examines why the United States developed a comparatively fragmented system of personal finance between the 1880s and the 1920s. It focuses, in particular, on the comparative development of a set of incumbent firms — savings banks — which played a leading role in personal finance...

The historiography of business history is often recounted in linear terms, as evolving from a Chandlerian era focused on big business to a post-Chandlerian period marked by the study of a wide variety of organizational forms and topics. Taking a longer and more global perspective, we offer a...