First Bank of the United States

In December 1790, Alexander Hamilton submitted a report on the national bank to the United States Congress . He proposed to create it on a private basis, but with a 20% participation of the state. Banknotes of the bank must be exchangeable for metallic money upon request, and also be accepted at face value in payment of taxes. The federal government must keep its funds in this bank.

Congress ratified the creation of the bank on February 25, 1791. The license guaranteed the bank monopoly status of a national bank for 20 years. The president of the bank was Thomas Willing . The bank began to actively provide loans to the US government. Their volume reached 6.2 million dollars. In the same period, the wholesale price index rose in the United States from 85 points in 1791 to 146 points in 1796. After 1796, the First Bank of the United States pursued a more moderate emission policy.

In 1811, the House of Representatives and the Senate rejected a bill to renew the bank’s license. State authorities have already combined more than 120 state banks. Many of them began issuing their own securities, and in just a few years the market was flooded with these securities, which prompted the government in 1817 to resort to payments in cash. The ability to issue securities was a power that the new banks and their owners did not want to concede to a strong central bank.

Unlike many of the privileged commercial banks of the time, the National Bank had branches in other states. This annoyed bankers who worked within the same state and believed that by doing so they were put in a relatively disadvantageous position. In reality, the branches contributed to the emergence of opposition to the central bank to a greater extent than the bank itself. Local merchants, many of whom created banks themselves, incorporated by state authorities, did not want a certain federal institution to compete with them or regulate their activities ^[1] .

After the expiration of the First Bank license, its assets, including the main building in the center of Philadelphia (built in 1795), were acquired by financier Stephen Girard . In less than a year, the Bank of Girard earned money in the same building and with the same cashiers.

• Second Bank of the United States (1816–1833)
• Bank of North America (1781-1783)
• Continental dollars