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A History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II

Page 51

by Murray N. Rothbard


  49Francis Neilson, The Tragedy of Europe (Appleton, Wis.: C.C. Nelson, 1946), 5, p. 289. For a brief but illuminating study of German-American trade and currency hostility in the 1930s leading to World War II, see Thomas H. Etzold, Why America Fought Germany in World War II (St. Louis: Forums in History, Forum Press, 1973).

  50Cordell Hull, Memoirs of Cordell Hull (New York, 1948), 1, p. 81.

  51Richard N. Gardner, Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956), p. 141.

  52The Times (London), October 11, 1940; quoted in Neilson, Tragedy of Europe, 5, p. 286.

  53Richard Gardner, Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy, p. 76.

  54Smith, “American Foreign Relations, 1920–1942,” p. 252; Gabriel Kolko, The Politics of War: The World and United States Foreign Policy, 1943–1945 (New York: Random House, 1968), pp. 243–44.

  55Kolko, The Politics of War, pp. 264, 485ff.; Lloyd C. Gardner, Architects of Illusion: Men and Ideas in American Foreign Policy, 1941–1949 (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1970), pp. 113–38.

  56Lloyd Gardner, “New Deal, New Frontiers,” p. 120.

  57Richard Gardner, Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy, pp. 42ff.; Lloyd Gardner, New Deal Diplomacy, pp. 275-80.

  58Smith, “American Foreign Relations, 1920–1942,” p. 252; Kolko, The Politics of War, pp. 248-49.

  59Ibid., pp. 249–51.

  60Richard Gardner, Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy, pp. 71ff., 95–99.

  61We do not deal here with the other institution established at Bretton Woods—the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development— which, in contrast to the International Monetary Fund, comes under commercial and financial, rather than monetary, policy.

  62John G. Winant to Hull, April 12, 1944; in Richard Gardner, Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy, p. 123. See also ibid., pp. 110–21.

  63An elaboration of the banker-oriented criticisms of the International Monetary Fund may be found in Anderson, Economics and the Public Welfare, pp. 578–89.

  64Henry W. Berger, “Senator Robert A. Taft Dissents from Military Escalation,” in Cold War Critics: Alternatives to American Foreign Policy in the Truman Years, Thomas G. Paterson, ed. (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1971), pp. 174–75, 198. Taft also strongly opposed the government’s guaranteeing of private foreign investments, such as were involved in the International Bank program. Ibid. See also Kolko, Politics of War, pp. 256–57; Lloyd Gardner, New Deal Diplomacy, p. 287; and Mikesell, United States Economic Policy, pp. 199f.

  65Richard Gardner, Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy, pp. 136–37; Mikesell, United States Economic Policy, pp. 134ff.

  66On the American debate over Bretton Woods, see Richard Gardner, Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy, pp. 129–43; on Bretton Woods, see also Mikesell, United States Economic Policy, pp. 129–35, 138ff., 142ff., 149–52, 155-58, 163–70.

  67Kolko, Politics of War, p. 294.

  68The removal of such classical pro-gold-standard economists as Henry Hazlitt from his post as editorial writer for the New York Times and Dr. Benjamin M. Anderson from the Chase National Bank, coincided with the accommodation of the financial community to the new system.

  69We might mention the influence of such economists as Ludwig Erhard, Alfred Müller-Armack, and Wilhelm Röpke in Germany; President Luigi Einaudi in Italy; and Jacques Rueff in France, who had played a similar hard-money role in the 1920s and early 1930s.

  Index

  (Prepared by Richard Perry)

  A | B | C | D | E

  F | G | H | I | J

  K | L | M | N | O

  P | Q | R | S | T

  U | V | W | Y

  A

  Academy of Political Science (APS), 239, 241, 249–51

  Accountants, 325, 326

  Acheson, Dean G., 306, 347, 464, 466, 477

  Adams, Brooks, 209–10, 214

  Adams, Charles, 270, 311, 422

  Adams, Henry, 209

  Adams, Thomas S., 221n

  Addis, Charles Frances, 365, 391, 447

  Agricultural Adjustment Administration, 333, 471

  Agricultural Credits Act

  of 1921, 284

  of 1923, 285

  Aldrich, Nelson W., 206, 243–49, 252–57, 302

  Aldrich Bill, 206, 244, 253

  Aldrich Plan, 254–57

  Aldrich-Vreeland Act, 244

  Jeckyll Island retreat, 252–53

  National Monetary Commission, 245–48

  Aldrich, Winthrop W., 302, 302n, 309–12, 315–17, 341–42, 458, 484

  Alexander, Magnus W., 454

  Allied Supreme Council, 391

  Allison, William Boyd, 199

  Altschul, Frank, 456

  Aluminum Corporation of America (ALCOA), 267, 378

  Amalgamated Sugar Company, 332n, 333

  America, Colonial

  army impressments, 60

  commodity money during, 48,

  compulsory legal tender in, 52

  inflationary paper money schemes, 50, 51, 58

  American Academy of Political Science (AAPSS), 241, 243, 249

  American Bankers Association (ABA), 205–06, 237, 244, 247, 256–58, 283, 482

  American Car and Foundry, 302, 311

  American Economic Association (AEA), 199, 215–18, 234, 246

  American Federation of Labor, 275, 448

  American Locomotive Company, 302

  American Smelting and Refining, 370

  American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), 198, 207, 267, 296, 379

  Anaconda Copper, 279

  Anderson, Benjamin M., 277, 278n, 304, 426n, 445, 449, 458, 486n

  Andrew, Abram Piatt, 236, 245–46, 249, 253–54

  Articles of Confederation, 62

  Astor, John Jacob, 84

  Astor, Vincent, 302, 310

  Auchincloss, Gordon, 310

  Austrian economics, 7, 11n, 25, 40

  business cycle theory, 94

  Aviation Corporation, 301n

  B

  Bacon, Robert, 192

  Bailey, W. J., 414

  Baker, George F., 207, 235, 245

  Baker, Newton D., 281

  Baldwin, Henry, 148n

  Baldwin, Stanley, 367n

  Ballantine, Arthur A., 289

  “Bancor,” 481, 483

  Bankers Magazine, 148, 204, 240

  Banking, 87, 113, 143, 168, 295, 428, 448

  Act of 1933, 315

  Act of 1935, 317, 331, 337, 341–42

  bank holiday, 453

  branches and cartelization, 205

  central reserve city banks, 136–41, 154

  collapse of, 453

  commercial paper, 163–64, 238, 250

  compulsory par law of 1819, 81

  country banks, 116–18, 121–22, 137–41, 197, 206, 242, 247

  decentralized banking, 77, 112–14, 136n, 135, 137, 204–05, 238–39, 242–43, 247, 253

  demand deposits, 69–71, 71n, 137, 144, 147n, 186–87, 418

  paying interest on, 139–41

  practice prohibited, 139n, 315, 318

  failures

  cotton speculation and, 101

  easy money cause of, 277

  effect money supply, 276

  give other banks pause, 294

  fractional reserve, 97, 295, 354–55

  beginnings of, 57, 60

  distrust of, 168

  opposition to, 90–92, 112

  post–Civil War, 168

  pre–Civil War, 112–13

  free, 77, 77n–78n

  pre–Civil War era, 112–13, 135–37, 142, 152

  transformation to centralized, 134–37, 142

  national banking system, 120–22, 129, 132–47, 136n, 153, 246

  change in structure, 141–42

  creation of three national bank types, 136–37

  Gold Standard Era and 159–60

  inner contradictions of, 135

  inverted pyramiding scheme of, 137–39, 141

  unhappiness with, 185–88, 186n, 204

  National Banking
Acts, 134–35, 145, 163, 167, 186–87

  National Banking System Act of 1863, 122

  notes, expansion of, 56, 73

  Peel’s Bank Act of 1844, 204n

  “pet banks,” 93, 104, 208

  private notes, 56–58

  problems, 249

  pyramiding, 62, 69, 71, 75, 90, 137–39, 140–42, 154, 160

  state banking system

  replaced by national banking system, 135, 137, 143

  time deposits, 418

  wildcat banking, 78–79, 114 See also Banks; Glass-Steagall Act; Credit expansion

  Bank(s)

  Bank for International Settlements (BIS), 276–77, 398, 426–27

  Bank for Mutual Redemption, 121–22

  Bank of England, 62, 99, 204, 245, 270–72, 286, 319, 360, 364–77, 382–86, 399, 406, 410, 421, 427–31, 442–47, 483

  Committee on Currency and Bank of England Note Issue, 364

  Bank of North America, 62–64, 63n, 68, 72

  Boden-Kredit-Anstalt of Vienna, 450

  central banks, 64, 234, 241, 252–53

  abolish, 92, 104

  academic organizations and, 249

  acquiring legitimacy for, 236

  drive for, 234

  lender of last resort, 40, 187, 240, 246, 368

  legislative activity for, 243–44

  restraint, on inflation, myth of, 71–75, 78, 93–94, 96

  secret conclave to draft plans for, 252–53

  crisis of 1933, 293, 297

  Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 445

  Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 318, 399, 443–45, 484

  First Bank of the U. S. 1791–1811, 68–72, 71n, 72n

  First National Bank of Chicago, 201, 237, 246, 256, 302, 309, 456

  First National Bank of Philadelphia, 146

  First National Bank of Washington, D.C., 146

  Fourth National Bank of New York, 146

  International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 482n

  Kuhn, Loeb, 188, 192, 195, 230, 235, 235n, 292, 299, 310, 432

  among financial elites, 263, 266

  central bank proponent, 188, 234

  Massachusetts Land Bank, 51–53, 55, 57–58, 58n

  Mellon National Bank, 267, 378

  National City Bank of New York, 298

  New England Bank of Boston, 115

  Rockefeller–Harriman–Kuhn, Loeb, 192, 262, 263

  Second Bank of U.S. 1816–1833, 82–96

  demise of, 92, 101

  fraud abounded at, 86–88

  launched inflation of money from inception, 86–87

  Suffolk Bank, 114–22

  demise of, 116, 121–22

  free-market success, 115

  stabilizing effects of, 118–19 See also Federal Reseve Bank

  Barrows, David P., 225n

  Barter, 90, 352

  Baruch, Bernard M., 279–81, 299, 306, 313, 464, 466, 474

  Beaverbrook, Lord, 405–06, 482

  Bechtel, Stephen, 334n–34n

  W.A. Bechtel Company, 333n–34n

  Beckers, Dr. William, 279n

  Belmont, August, 169

  Bendix, Vincent, 298, 454

  Benston, George J., 315

  Benton, Thomas Hart, 91–92

  Bernstein Plan, 490

  Bestor, Paul, 289

  Bethlehem Steel, 370

  Bevan, Aneurin “Nye,” 404

  Bicester, Lord, 369

  Biddle, Nicholas, 92–94, 96

  Billias, George Athan, 58

  Bimetallism, 47, 104–06, 109–11, 167, 219, 222, 231, 353

  coinage, 65–68

  end of, 108

  fallacies of, 220

  Bingham, William, 92

  Bird, Kai, 347

  Birmingham, Stephen, 215

  Black, Eugene R., 301, 336

  Blackett, Sir Basil, 391–92, 447

  Bland-Allison Silver Purchase Act of 1878, 160

  Blumenthal, George, 279

  Board of Economic Warfare, 339

  Bombshell message, 307, 465–66

  Bonn, Moritz J., 431

  Boom-bust cycle, 54, 95, 355

  Currency School cycle, theory of, 91

  national, first, 89–91, 94–95, 101

  full scale inflationary, 88

  Boothby, G.R., 481

  Bovenizer, George W., 320

  Boyle, Andrew, 374

  Boxer Rebellion, 228–29

  Bradbury, Sir John, 365, 367

  Bradley, Justice Joseph P., 153

  Braeman, John, 291

  Brandeis, Louis D., 299, 322

  Bremner, Robert H., 291

  Bretton Woods Agreement, 43, 208–09, 232, 306, 345–46, 432–33, 475, 482–86

  Brimhall, Dean, 335

  Britain. See Great Britain

  British Royal Dutch Shell Oil, 308

  Bronson, Isaac, 79

  Bruere, Henry, 301n

  Bryan, William Jennings, 169–70, 176–77, 188

  Bryanism, 169, 177–78, 189–90, 197

  Buchanan, James A., 87n

  Bullitt, William C., 459

  Bureau of Budget, 304, 335

  Bureau of Insular Affairs (BIA), 221–22

  Burgess, W. Randolph, 287, 483

  Burnett, Cody, 59

  Burton, Theodore, 245, 257

  Bush, Irving T., 246

  Bush, Thomas G., 194

  Business Advisory Council (BAC), 300–01

  Business Week, 278, 426

  Business Men’s Monetary Reform League, 254

  Butler, Nicholas Murray, 241

  C

  Cannan, Edwin, 366n

  Capeadores, 415, 420

  Capital formation, 165–69

  Carey, Henry C., 148–49, 149n

  Cartelization

  of agriculture, 285, 334–34

  of banking industry, 36, 186, 318, 322, 368, 372

  of industry, 264, 277, 281, 299

  of Wall Street, 296, 306, 318, 320, 327–28

  Carver, Thomas Nixon, 236, 246

  Catchings, Waddill, 273, 303

  Central banks. See Banks

  Census of 1890, 166

  Chamberlain, Austen, 364n, 365, 367n

  Chapman, Sidney, 211, 391

  Charles I, 56–57

  Chase, Salmon P., 123–26, 126n, 133–37, 143, 152

  Chase, Stuart, 335

  Cheves, Langdon, 94

  Chicago School, 31

  Chicago Times-Herald, 191

  Chicago Tribune, 204, 414, 445

  Churchill, Winston, 365–67, 367n

  Citizens’ Reconstruction Organization (CRO), 296

  Claflin, John, 235–36

  Clark, John Bates, 214, 243, 416, 416n, 447

  Clark, Spencer, 126n

  Clayton, William L. (Will), 346–47, 478, 485–86

  Cleveland, Grover, 168–69, 175–76, 178

  Cline, Virgil P., 198

  Cochran, Thomas, 267, 267n, 379

  Cockayne, Brien, 360

  Code of Fair Competition, 328–29n

  Cohen, Benjamin V., 322, 330

  Coinage Act

  of 1792, 65, 65n, 104

  of 1834, 104–06, 106n, 110–11

  Collamer, Jacob, 126n

  Collet, Mark W., 373

  Colt, S. Sloan, 331

  Colwell, Stephen, 148

  Commercial and Financial Chronicle, 278, 278n, 426

  Commission on International Exchange (CIE), 296

  Committee for Constitutional Government, 454

  Committee for the Nation to Rebuild Prices and Purchasing Power, 298, 303, 305, 307–08, 454–56

  Committee on Currency and Foreign Exchanges, 359 See also Cunliffe Committee

  Committee on Legislative Programs, 338

  Conant, Charles A., 196–97, 199–200n, 201, 204, 208–14, 218, 221, 235, 243, 246, 248, 251, 389

  Conant plan, 222–26

  “conants,” 224

  currency reforms, 23
2–33

  failure in Cuba and China, 226–29

  surplus capital, theory of, 210–16, 222–23, 230–32

  Conference of Governors, 273

  Committee for Constitutional Government, 454

  Commonwealth and Southern Corporation, 330

  Consolidated Gas Company of New York, 207

  Continental Congress, 59, 61

  Continentals, 59–60, 72

  not worth a, 60

 

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