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Bank Chartering and Political Corruption in Antebellum New York: Free Banking as Reform

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Author Info
Howard Bodenhorn
Abstract

One traditional and oft-repeated explanation of the political impetus behind free banking connects the rise of Jacksonian populism and a rejection of the privileges associated with corporate chartering. A second views free banking as an ill-informed inflationist, pro business response to the financial panic of 1837. This chapter argues that both explanations are lacking. Free banking was the progeny of the corruption associated with bank chartering and reflected social, political and economic backlashes against corruption dating to the late-1810s. Three strands of political thought -- Antimasonic egalitarianism, Jacksonian pragmatism, and pro-business American Whiggism -- converged in the 1830s and led to economic reform. Equality of treatment was the political watchword of the 1830s and free banking was but one manifestation of this broader impulse.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 10479.

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Date of creation: May 2004
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10479

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N11 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Growth and Fluctuations - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Mortgages

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  4. Economopoulos, Andrew & O'Neill, Heather, 1995. "Bank Entry during the Antebellum Period," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(4), pages 1071-85, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. King, Robert G., 1983. "On the economics of private money," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 127-158. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Howard Bodenhorn, 2004. "Free Banking and Bank Entry in Nineteenth-Century New York," NBER Working Papers 10654, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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