Today, financial historian Mark Higgins joins me for an in-depth discussion on the history of the Private Equity and Venture Capital ecosystems, including their creation, evolution, and subsequent maturity. I first learned about Mark when I picked up his book, "Investing in U.S. Financial History: Understanding the Past to Forecast the Future", which is an incredibly comprehensive guide to the entirety of U.S. financial history. The book starts in 1790 with the role that Alexander Hamilton played in the creation of the first U.S. Central bank, and over the subsequent 500 pages or so, Mark brings us all the way to the current date. Throughout, he covers everything from the history of interest rates, fiscal policy, tariffs, wars, recessions, depressions, global trade, new investment products, and pretty much everything in between. Though the book is incredibly comprehensive and covers much more than the history of the Private Equity and Venture Capital ecosystems, these two asset classes are of particular interest to me as an active participant in the market for small, privately-held businesses over the past 15 years or so. Though this market may differ in several ways from traditional PE and VC, there may be lessons to be gleaned from how these ecosystems evolved and matured over the past few decades…. or, maybe not. I will leave that decision to you.