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Lessons from the American Experience with Free Banking

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Unregulated Banking

Abstract

Two decades ago the early history of American banking was dismissed as an object of study for someone concerned about current monetary problems, except perhaps as an object lesson about what can go wrong if the government does not apply a stern regulatory hand to the banking system. An article that appeared in Banker’s Magazine in 1971 entitled ‘The Early Ways and Crazy Days of Banking’ (Lasdon (1971)), accurately reflected contemporary thinking. Since that time, as recently noted by Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz (1986), a number of factors have produced a renewal of interest in radical forms of banking regulation, and this period is now the object of intense research in academic circles.

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Authors
  1. Hugh Rockoff
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The City University, London, UK

    Forrest Capie (Professor of Economic History and Head of Department of Banking and International Finance) & Geoffrey E. Wood (Professor of Economics) (Professor of Economic History and Head of Department of Banking and International Finance) &  (Professor of Economics)

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© 1991 Forrest Capie and Geoffrey E. Wood

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Rockoff, H. (1991). Lessons from the American Experience with Free Banking. In: Capie, F., Wood, G.E. (eds) Unregulated Banking. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11398-9_3

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