As an investment banker Charles Merrill was an unlikely champion of the common man, yet it was he who began the democratisation of the stock market and ended the closed shop of Wall Street.

Merrill was born in Florida in 1885. Money was scarce during his formative years and he was forced to leave college through lack of funds. Fortunately, however, Merrill’s legendary foresight was innate. He saw that Middle America — a huge, untapped market — was being excluded from the markets by traders.

No more mumbo-jumbo from Harvard men in panelled rooms; let the stock market’s workings henceforth be intelligible even to the small investor

James Merrill, explaining his father's plans

Using the firm he founded in 1915, Merrill Lynch & Co, as his vehicle, Merrill set about demystifying the market and its associated jargon. The firm published countless magazines and pamphlets explaining investing in layman terms.

Merrill also held seminars across the country ensuring — with characteristic inclusiveness — that childcare was provided. He even gave away stock in a competition.

“No more mumbo-jumbo from Harvard men in panelled rooms; let the stock market’s workings henceforth be intelligible even to the small investor,” wrote James Merrill, summing up his father’s ethos. A successful poet, James no doubt appreciated the improbable, romantic notion that his father, the banker, was helping the masses.

‘Good Time Charlie Merrill’ was habitually romantic, marrying three times and having numerous affairs. The father-of-three euphemistically excused his philandering as “recharging my batteries”.

Merrill was the first major player to predict the Wall Street Crash of 1929, but his pleas for President Calvin Coolidge to condemn speculation were ignored. Merrill liquidated his company’s portfolio seven months before the crash.

Merrill, who was also the first banker to anticipate the hegemony of the chain store, blazed a trail that the rest of Wall Street was slow to follow, and by the time he died in 1956, the average American was still wary of the markets. Merrill left behind the biggest brokerage in the US, but with half of Americans now investing in stocks, he would probably draw more satisfaction from knowing his goal of “bringing Wall Street to Main Street” was belatedly achieved.