TY  - JOUR
AU  - Rockoff,Hugh
TI  - Lessons from the American Experience with Free Banking
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Historical Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9
PY  - 1989
Y2  - December 1989
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/h0009
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/h0009.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Hugh Rockoff
Department of Economics
75 Hamilton Street
Rutgers University
College Avenue Campus
New Brunswick, NJ  08901-1248
Tel: 609/897-0117
Fax: 732/932-7416
E-Mail: rockoff@fas-econ.rutgers.edu
AB  - There has been considerable interest in recent years in historical experiments with "free banking." This paper examines once again the American experiments in the decades before the Civil War, and the recent literature on them. The lessons of this experience for four issues are considered: (1) the appropriate mechanism for controlling the monetary base, (2) the need for a lender of last resort, (3) the costs and benefits of a bank issued currency, and (4) the potential under a regime of free banking for wildcat banking.
ER  -