Finance and Commerce

Finance and commerce of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis, Minn.; St. Paul, Minn.) 1909-1938  Browse the title

Finance and commerce (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1938-current  Browse the title
Issues from this title can only be accessed from the Gale Family Library at the Minnesota History Center.

"Read daily by progressive business men," according to its masthead, Finance and Commerce of the Twin Cities began publication in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1877. According to R.L. Polk’s Little Sketches of Big Folks, published in 1907, Finance and Commerce of the Twin Cities began as a small publication called the Daily Report, which was little more than a brief summary of public legal notices – property transfers, incorporations, bankruptcies. In 1902, the Daily Report was purchased by Herman Daniel Maul, a law student and bookkeeper originally from Madison, Wisconsin, and was re-named the Daily Legal News. A second name change occurred in 1909 when the Daily Legal News became Finance and Commerce of the Twin Cities. The title was later shortened to Finance and Commerce, which the paper is published as to this day.

A four-page, six-column daily publication, Finance and Commerce of the Twin Cities provided news of interest to the Minneapolis and St. Paul business communities. Alongside the regular, front-page blocks devoted to the Minneapolis, St. Paul, and New York stock exchanges, the paper featured regular articles on Minnesota industries, such as mining, construction, lumber and grain milling, as well as news concerning banking, mutual funds and insurance. Like its predecessors, the Daily Report and the Daily Legal News, Finance and Commerce of the Twin Cities also devoted considerable space to public legal notices and summaries of court proceedings.

Herman Daniel Maul began working for the paper in 1898, while he was still a bookkeeper for the private bank of W.E. Steele and Company. In 1902, he formed the Legal News Publishing Company. Herman Maul served as the editor and publisher of Finance and Commerce of the Twin Cities for 38 years until his death in 1936 at age 75. Herman’s brother, Alfred, served at the paper’s vice president and secretary and Herman’s son, Earl, served as the paper’s clerk. Alfred Maul was succeeded as vice president and secretary in 1906 by Edward J. Elander, who was in turn succeeded by Fred A. Likely in 1909.