Banking on the people: Banks, politics, and market evolution in early national Pennsylvania, 1781-1824.

摘要

This dissertation traces the development of a comprehensive banking system in Pennsylvania from the economic upheaval of the American Revolution through the 1820s. In the context of an expanding market economy, Pennsylvanians often created new banks to provide capital to more people. They used legislative chartering to expand the state's banking network while maintaining strict democratic accountability over the new banks. In 1814, the Pennsylvania General Assembly chartered forty-one banks with one act. At times, the Pennsylvania General Assembly prioritized banking regulation in response to specie shortages and unstable paper note issuances by the banks.;Different political factions often supported or opposed banks, and banking debates were often contentious in the Assembly and the newspapers. Regional self-interest was the most important political dynamic over banking legislation. Pressure for new banks often came from rural central and western Pennsylvania. Primary opposition to new rural banks usually came from Philadelphians. In the 1780s, a regional political division over the Bank of North America led to intense partisan conflict. In the 1790s, Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans took opposite sides on various banking debates. Between 1800 and 1824, Pennsylvania Jeffersonians sometimes displayed different philosophies with regard to banking. The Philadelphia-based faction known as the Old School Democrats was less likely to support new banks. By contrast, country, or Snyderite Democrats tended towards support for new banks. The Assembly's power of incorporation became the primary means by which Jeffersonians sought to create more banking opportunity while also asserting control over banks. Most Federalists preferred a more limited role for the state with regard to banking regulation.;Both national banks were controversial in Pennsylvania during the early Republic. Support for the Bank of the United States usually came from Philadelphia interests, although this also depended on party affiliation and connection to other banks. Central and western Pennsylvanians consistently opposed the national banks. Debates over the national banks indicated the persistence of a states' rights ethic in Pennsylvania well into the 1820s. Finally, debates over the national banks highlighted Pennsylvanians' desire to control banks via state charters, and the regional political dynamic over banking in the early Republic.