Contracting for profit typically asks that sophisticated institutions help merchants and entrepreneurs as they bargain, invest and serve their obligations. Prime concerns include the processing of information, payments and dispute resolution, which in principle should be provided in an altogether efficient, predictable and flexible manner. In practice however, well-tested, ready-made institutions rarely emerge spontaneously or converge naturally toward a rational solution. Experimentation in market institutions is typically long, competing rules may coexist over time and cause uncertainty, or, for instance, an institution that emerged early on and was endowed with substantial legitimacy by its patrons may eventually prove inadequate, because it was designed for the needs of a previous time. Technological change or evolving market structures can debase old institutions and those who control them...