| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Robert E. Wright. Origins of Commercial Banking in America, 1750–1800. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield. 2001. Pp. xii, 219. Cloth $65.00, paper $24.95.

Commercial banking emerged in America following the American Revolution. Except for a few failed banking experiments, there were no long-lasting commercial banks in colonial America. Historians have been challenged to explain fully the lack of banking in this early period and the dramatic growth of banking following the Revolution. Robert E. Wright's intriguing analysis of the beginnings of American banking seeks to address the question of "why did American banking arise when, and with the particular characteristics, it did?" (p. 3). 1

Wright's main argument is fairly straightforward: the need for "liquidity" in America's money and business markets, made most apparent by the economic demands and dislocations of the American Revolution, helped spur the development of commercial banking. Wright's early chapters focus on the problems of the colonial economy, particularly the lack of a uniform currency and the relative lack of capital markets. Wright examines certain contemporary attempts to alleviate these problems that were generally unsuccessful. Ultimately, it was the economic and financial crisis precipitated by the American Revolution, coupled with the business opportunities the Revolution offered, that helped usher in commercial banking. . . .

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