Caldwell and Company - (Vintage Vanderbilt) by John Berry McFerrin (Paperback)

About the Book

The rise and fall of a Southern financial empire.

Book Synopsis

This is the fascinating, detailed account of the rise and fall of the largest banking house ever before established in the South, whose financial misfeasance during the prosperous twenties led to its eventual collapse and brought ruin to numerous innocent investors.

Caldwell and Company was founded in Nashville in 1917 by Rogers Caldwell, the son of a leading local banker and businessman. Beginning as a small underwriter and distributor of Southern municipal bonds, the firm soon branched out into real estate bonds and industrial securities as well. Control of important banks in Tennessee and Arkansas was acquired; newspapers, and even Nashville's professional baseball team, came under the firm's ownership. Caldwell and Company was, truly, a pioneer conglomerate.

Caldwell and Company also ventured into the realm of politics, supporting certain politicians (notably Colonel Luke Lea) with questionable benefits accruing to the firm, including substantial state deposits in Caldwells Bank of Tennessee.

In November 1930 the firm went into receivership. Unethical practices, including overextension in the acquisition of banks, insurance companies, and other business, had already strain Caldwell and Company's assets. With the 1929 collapse of stock prices. Rogers Caldwell could not meet the company's obligations, and he began to squeeze all available cash from the various controlled firms. He also negotiated a merger between Caldwell and Company and Banco-Kentucky Company of Louisville--a transaction which must stand as one of the strangest deals in the annals of American business. Even the aforementioned State of Tennessee deposits, which helped float his empire for a while, could not prevent its collapse--a collapse which resulted in a multi-million dollar loss to Tennessee's Treasury, public hysteria, and clamor for the impeachment of the Governor of Tennessee.

Originally Published in 1939, this edition includes a new introduction in which the author comments on the long-run implications of the Caldwell episode and reports the outcome of legal actions, both civil and criminal, still pending at the time the book was first published.

About the Author

John Berry McFerrin is Emeritus Professor of Finance at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

With the exception of three years during WWII when he was on active duty with the US Navy, Mr. McFerrin was a member of the University of Florida faculty from the completion of his graduate work at the University of North Carolina in 1937 until he retired in 1976. In his long career. While teaching finance and economics, he served, at various times, as Cairman of the Department of Business Organization and Operation, Directior of Graduate Studies and Acting Dean of the College of Business Administration. In 1970, he was appointed Associate Dean of the College, a position he held until retirement.

McFerrin is a member and past-president of the Southern Economic Association. He is also a member of the American Economic Association and the Financial Analysts Society of Jacksonville. He has contributed several articles to the Southern Economic Journal.

A native of Tennessee, McFerrin graduated from Southwestern at Memphis. Both his masters degree and PhD (1937) are from the university of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Caldwell and Company grew out of his doctoral studies.