A History Of Money And Banking In The United States

The master teacher of American economic history covers money and banking in the whole of American history, to show that the meltdown of our times is hardly the first. And guess what caused them in the past? Paper money, loose credit, reckless lending standards, government profligacy, and central banking. When will we learn? When people understand the cause and effect in the history of these repeating calamities. In a complete revision of the standard account, Rothbard traces inflation, banking panics, and money meltdowns from the Colonial Period through the mid 20th century to show how government systematic war on sound money is the hidden force behind nearly all major economic calamities in American history. Never has the story of money and banking been told with such rhetorical power and theoretical vigor. Here is how this book came to be. Rothbard died in 1995, leaving many people to wish that he had written a historical treatise on this topic. But the the archives assisted: Rothbard had in fact left & nbsp several large manuscripts dedicated to American banking history. In the course of his career, meanwhile, he had published other pieces along the same lines, but they appeared in venues not readily accessible. Given the desperate need for a single volume that covers the topic, the Mises Institute put together this thrilling book. So seamless is the style and argument, and comprehensive is coverage, that it might as well have been written in exactly the format. The end result is Rothbards (and the Austrian Schools) answer to Friedman and Schwartz. Sections in this 500 page treatise: I. "The History of Money and Banking Before the Twentieth Century." This was Rothbards contribution to the minority report of the US Gold Commission and treats the evolution of the US monetary system from its colonial beginnings. II. "Origins of the Federal Reserve." This thrilling paper lay unpublished for a long time and only recently appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. It is easily the most comprehensive account in print. It names names and shows the constellation of interest group affiliations that led to its creation. III. "From Hoover to Roosevelt: The Federal Reserve and the Financial Elites." This previously unpublished paper goes into great detail on how the Morgan and Rockefeller financial interests shaped the political and behavior of the Fed. IV. "The Gold Exchange Standard in the Interwar Years." This large section has appeared in print but not in its full version. Rothbard elucidates the reasons why the British and US government in the 1920s re created the gold standard in a manner that was profoundly flawed and potentially inflationary (leading to the Great Depression). V. "The New Deal and the International Monetary System" This section appeared in a volume first published in 1976 and which is now very difficult to find. Rothbard argues that an abrupt shift occurred in monetary policy just before the US entered World War. He shows who benefited from the shift from dollar nationalism to dollar imperialism. He concludes with a smashing attack and expose of the Bretton Woods agreement of 1944. From the introduction by Joseph Salerno: "Rothbard employs the Misesian approach to economic history consistently and dazzlingly throughout the volume to unravel the causes and consequences of events and institutions ranging over the course of U.S. monetary history, from the colonial times through the New Deal era. One of the important benefits of Rothbards unique approach is that it naturally leads to an account of the development of the U.S. monetary system in terms of a compelling narrative linking human motives and plans that often-times are hidden and devious, leading to outcomes that sometimes are tragic. One will learn much more about monetary history from reading this exciting story than from poring over reams of statistical analysis.

An exposition on the principles of banking with a full account of incidents in the history of American banking.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1833 edition. Excerpt: ... AN INQUIRY INTO THE PRINCIPLES OF THE AMERICAN BANKING SYSTEM. CHAPTER I. Importance of the Subject. In an address to the stockholders of the United States Bank, at their meeting in 1828, Mr. N. Biddle, the President of that institution, stated, that, of five hundred and forty-four Banks in the United States, one hundred and forty-four had been openly declared bankrupt, and about fifty more had suspended business. Mr. Gallatin, in his "Considerations on the Currency and Banking System," published in 1831, gives a list of 329 State Banks then in operation, having nominal capitals of the amount of $108,301,898, which, added to the capital of the United States Bank, made the whole nominal capital of these institutions, upwards of one hundred and forty-three millions of dollars. These Banks issue notes which serve as substitutes for coin. They grant credits on their books, and transfer the amount of credit from one merchant to another. *. They receive money on deposit. They buy and sell bills of exchange. They discount mercantile notes. They buy and sell public stocks. All these are important functions, and if only one of them be ill performed, the community must suffer inconvenience. The Banks are scattered through nearly all the States and Territories which compose our Union; but they may all be embraced in one view, inasmuch as they all substitute paper for specie, and credit for cash, and are all endowed with privileges which individuals do not possess. By their various operations, immediate and remote, they must affect, for good or for evil, every individual in the country. Banking is not a local, temporary, or occasional cause. It is general and permanent. Like the atmosphere, it presses every where. Its effects are felt alike in the...

An account of the central importance of money in the ordinary business of the life of different people throughout the ages from ancient times to the present day. It includes the Barings crisis and the report by the Bank of England on Barings Bank; information on the state of Japanese banking; and, the changes in the financial scene in the US.

Also attributed to John H. Eastburn.