The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-09-03
HISTORY OF GREAT BROWN BROS. BANK
 |SuKE ROMANCE Placing S20,000,O00 French Credit Recalls Early Days
 in Baltimore
FOUNDER BEGAN AS
 IMPORTER OF LINEN
Bank Has Prominent Place in Ameri- can Development Since Its Founding More Than
 Hundred Years Ago
By HOLLAND


 When the history which will permanent ly record the momentous use of credit and resources and mastery of interna- ticnal finance which have characterized the transactions of J. P. Morgan & Co.,, Kuhn, Loeb & Co.,. Frank A. Vanderlip and his associates of the National City bank and others is published not the least interesting of the achievements of this kind will be that of Brown Bros, who a few days ago reported that they have established for France a credit of s2o,oOo,oo0 By and by they may repeat, and more than once, the transactions The funds are to be employed not in pay ing for munitions of war purchased by France in the United States. but for other commodities, peaceful commodities, which France has bought and is to buy here and to export from this country. It Is called commercial export credit. Associated with Brown Bros. is French syndicate.
 The achievement adds another item to long list of remarkable financial lrans- actions originated and compassed by this house. More than 100 years have passed since Alexander Brown. a linen mer- chant from Belfast. established himself in the city of Baltimore with intent to inn port linens. Mir. Brown selected Balti- more because at that time it appeared to him that that city was likely to be the leading commercial city of the United States. He counted upon exports of to- bacco and some other commodities pro- duced in the south, not at first paying much heed to cotton. Curiously enough, at about the time MT. Brown established himself in Baltimore. Samuel Slater was erecting the first cotton manufacturing plant in the United States. Slater brought over from England, entirely in his head, the plans and specifications for cotton manufacturing machinery as 1t was then used in the Lancashire district in Eng land A little later Eli Whitney perfected the cotton gin, so that there was almost coincident development in point of time between the setting up of the first cotton manufacturing machinery in the United States near Pawtucket, R. l., where cx- cellent water power could be secured. and the perfecting of Whitneys apparatus which revolutionized the cotton industry not only of the United States, but of the world.
 These developments made it possible for MT. Brown to gain a much larger export trade from Baltimore than he ex- pected to secure when he opened his shop In Baltimore. He received linens from Ireland and he sent cotton and tobacco aCTOSS liie sedS lIolll DdillIuOKc- FAo ie the reason why he began to perfect a sys- tenn of foreign exchange which was sub stantially the first utilization of foreign exchange on a large scale by merchants and exporters of the United States. This entailed the establishment of banking ia cilities at Liverpool and ultimately at London, so that at last the house which MT. Brown established became the leader among American International banking houses.
 MT. Brown made one mistake The building of the Erie canal shifted com mercal pre-eminenee from Baltimore tC New York city, but already the house had gained such pre-eminence as interna- tional bankers that 1t was able to estab- fish prof1taby branches at Philadelphia and New York. In order to offset the advantage New York city gained by the construction of the Erie canal, Mir. Brown began an agitation in Baltimore for the construction of railroad which was when completed, to run westerly across the mountains and find a termina, some where upon the banks of the Ohio river His proposition was successful and the great engineer. Captain Whistler. who aft. erward constructed the railroad from St Petersburg to Moscow, was secured as engineer in charge of the survey and con struction of the Baltimore and Ohio rail road.
 A Long List of Triumphs The great achievements secured by Alexander Brown. contributing in nc small measure to the development O. American prosperity have been matched and perhaps surpassed by those who sue ceeded the founder of this house. So higl was the credit established by this hous' and so favorably was it regarded by thu great bankers of England that in thu l perilous days of the American panic O | 1857 the Bank of London cordially gay,