Which company founded in 1841 was the first commercial credit reporting agency?

Dun & Bradstreet was the company founded in 1841 that traces its origins to the first commercial credit-reporting agency.

On July 20, 1841, New York merchant and abolitionist Lewis Tappan established the Mercantile Agency after the financial turmoil of the Panic of 1837 exposed how little merchants knew about distant trading partners. The agency built a nationwide network of correspondents who investigated businesses and supplied reports to subscribing merchants.

The system expanded quickly: by 1844, the agency had more than 280 clients and offices in Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Robert Graham Dun acquired the business in 1859 and renamed it R. G. Dun & Company. John M. Bradstreet founded a rival agency in 1849; the two companies merged in 1933 to create Dun & Bradstreet.

The key distinction is that “Dun & Bradstreet” was not the original 1841 name. The modern company is the successor to the Mercantile Agency, making the stored answer acceptable in a corporate-history quiz, while the agency itself is the precise historical name.