TRADE PROTECTION SOCIETIES are associations composed of merchants, trades men, and others, which have been formed for the promotion of trade, and for protecting the individual members from losses in their business transactions with each other, and with the community at large. They began to spring up about the middle of the last century—one of the first started in this country being the " London association of guardians for the protection of trade," which was established in 1776. In 1871 the board of trade granted a license for incorporation to one under the companies acts, 1862-67. The operations of these societies used to be confined chiefly to the compilation of regis ters of bankruptcies, insolvencies, and private settlements with creditors. The registers were formed thus: Each member informed the secretary of his society of the name, oc cupation, and address of the customers who became insolvent, with the amount of divi dend their estate yielded; and latterly, the circumstances connected with such insol vency, whether recklessness or extravagance on the part of the bankrupt, or innocent misfortune. These circumstances were carefully recorded, and the information thus collected having been found useful, means were taken to render the registers more com plete. With this view, new sections were added to the registers, and special attention was directed to the exposure of swindlers, and persons who had been guilty of fraud or i embezzlement. The information accumulated in the registers, though always accessible to such members as made inquiry at the offices of the society, was kept strictly private from all others. But the extraordinary development of commercial enterprise which
took place in the early part of this century, added a new stimulus to the trade protection movement. The registers which the societies now printed and circulated among their members contained transcriptions from the following public records: viz., the records of the bankruptcy courts, registers of assignments and trust-deeds, bonds or warrants of attorney, hills of sale, judges' orders, protested bills, and decrees in absence. In addi tion to the diffusion of it iormation of this description, the societies undertook to recover past-due bills and accounts for their members, to investigate the circumstances connec ted with bankruptcies and insolvencies, collect dividends, and perform the general agency business of their members—the whole being done under the direction of a com mittee appointed for this purpose. Committees were also appointed to scrutinize all measures affecting trade and commerce which might be introduced into parliament, and to promote legislation favorable to the commercial interest. The sphere of action of trade protection societies thus rapidly widened, and their utility kept pace with their growth. The older societies established offices and branches throughout the country; and new societies sprang up in the large provincial cities; which in their turn opened agencies and branches in other towns and villages; and the various societies being in communication, the machinery of the whole is available for the purposes of each.