From a historical point of view, the main activity of investment banks is what today we call security underwriting.
Investment banks buy securities, such as bonds and stocks, from an issuer and then sell them to all investors. In the eighteenth century, the main securities were bonds issued by governments. These bonds were priced and placed extraordinarily similar to the system that investment banks still use nowadays. When a government wanted to issue new bonds, it negotiated with a few prominent "middlemen" (today, we would call them investment bankers). The middlemen agreed to take a fraction of the bonds: they agreed to do so only after having canvassed a list of people they could rely upon. The people on the list were all investors. The middlemen negotiated with the government even after the issuance. Indeed, in those days, governments often changed the bond conditions unilaterally, and being on the list of an important middleman could make the difference. On the other hand, intermediaries with larger lists were considered to be in a better bargaining position. This game was repeated over time, and hence, reputation mattered. For the middlemen, being trusted by both the investors on the list and the issuing governments was crucial.
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