434 WILLIAM P. GEST 



transacted. Such were the names of the earlier companies in 

 Pennsylvania — the Pennsylvania Company for Insurances on 

 Lives and Granting Annuities; the Girard Life Insurance, 

 Annuity and Trust company; the Provident Life and Trust 

 company; the Fidelity Insurance, Trust and Safe Deposit 

 company; the Philadelphia Trust, Safe Deposit and Insurance 

 company — but that was in the days when men had more time, 

 and the shortened form has now become more popular. This 

 is partly because in a number of the titles mentioned the 

 business described is just the kind of business the companies 

 no longer do. 



Compared with banks, trust companies are recent. 

 There were, of course, always bankers, but banks, properly 

 speaking, date in England from the seventeenth century. 

 There were no banks in America in colonial times except those 

 known as land banks. The first incorporated bank in the 

 United States is generally stated to have been the Bank of 

 North America, which was chartered by congress in 1781, and 

 still continues to transact business in Philadelphia. Trust 

 companies had no existence until the beginning of the nine- 

 teenth century. The oldest one in America is the Pennsyl- 

 vania Company for Insurances on Lives and Granting Annui- 

 ties, which was organized in 1809 and chartered in 1812. Other 

 companies were chartered from time to time, until I believe 

 there were in all, prior to 1860, some eight companies in the 

 United States. These early companies were, however, gener- 

 ally chartered for the purpose of doing a life insurance and 

 annuity business. Power to execute trusts was conferred 

 afterwards from time to time by special charter or amendment. 



The active growth of trust companies really dates from 

 the Civil war, and is closely connected with the establishment 

 of the safe deposit business. The war caused an unprece- 

 dented increase in government securities, which were held by 

 vast numbers of investors. Just before the Civil war the debt 

 of the United States was about $72,000,000. Immediately 

 after the Civil war it was $2,757,689,571, and there were issued 

 on account of the Civil war, from time to time, notes, certifi- 

 cates, and bonds aggregating over seven thousand millions. 



Formerly, individuals kept their securities either them- 



