The Rise of Institutional Mortgage Lending in Early Nineteenth-Century New Haven

This Note presents a case study in local financial development, placing particular emphasis on the role of local political institutions in facilitating economic growth. It presents original primary research on mortgage lending in New Haven, Connecticut in the early nineteenth century. Before 1837, lending institutions primarily made loans to the city's social and economic elite. But a shift occurred in the market at 1837: lending institutions abruptly began to make significant volumes of mortgage loans to non-elite individuals with less wealth and social standing. The Note argues that this change was driven partly by lending by the Town of New Haven itself, which established a Town Deposit Fund with federal and state support. As the first mortgagee to lend to a broad range of individuals, the Town expanded the city's mortgage market and contributed to its economic development.LawA&HCISSCI0ARTICLE1158-20712