During the years after the Napoleonic Wars London merchant bankers, including Baring Brothers and Company, faced new complexities in the management of their business. Among the new problems was to find a satisfactory means of selecting trustworthy correspondents. London had become the leading money center of the world. With that development came a great extension of business for all leading banking and mercantile houses. Old correspondents in all parts of the world increased their operations with “The City” and many new names were added to the lists of correspondents on the books of the Londoners. The relative standing of all these changed from month to month and year to year. Thus, the increasing numbers and the rapidly changing status of the correspondents afforded plentiful evidence that the former haphazard collection of information and the strictly personal knowledge were inadequate for the demands of safety and prudence.