Banking theories in the United States before 1860

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1755492553

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-133529

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Miller, Harry Edward http://d-nb.info/gnd/1055250875

Title:: Banking theories in the United States before 1860

Place of publication:: Cambridge

Publisher:: Harvard University Press

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: XI, 240 S.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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6 BANKING THEORIES IN UNITED STATES The full significance of their views was often hidden from the writers themselves. Not merely did they frequently change their opinions — the notions they held at any one time often embodied clashing principles. Raguet furnishes a classic example; he was at once one of the most suggestive and one of the most incon- sistent of the men with whom we are concerned. A leading con- tradiction, which was the rule rather than the exception (and it was shared by English writers), was that involved in asserting that banks can but distribute the purchasing power that they receive from stockholders and depositors, while recognizing at the same time that by expanding their loans banks can raise prices. Again, after many writers observe the similarity between notes and deposits as components of the currency, must we regard their persistent reasoning in terms of notes alone, when discussing prices and like problems, simply as a shorthand manner of ex- pression, or as an illustration of the way in which man’s brain works in water-tight compartments? The work of several of the writers was marred by what seems like studied combativeness. Raymond and H. C. Carey showed this disposition in highest degree. One cannot escape the feeling that they often opposed generally received views merely because of the pressure of their pugnacious non-conformist instincts. The general effect is much like that of the bitter personalities that characterize the colonial tracts. The relativity of economic theory to its institutional setting is too familiar a matter to call for more than casual notice here. Needless to say, illustrations of it abound in our study. The chief differences between the characteristics of the American and the English discussions were due to the different questions which banking, as practised in each country, raised. American theory in general did not dig so far below the surface because it was still largely concerned with the relative utility and disutility of bank- ing. In England the advantages of fairly orderly banking had been too long enjoyed to make this a matter of much more than academic interest. To turn to other examples, the thesis that 1 See Chapter VIII.

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