The Wealth of Nations Rediscovered : Integration and Expansion in American Financial Markets, 1780-1850

List of Tables vii Acknowledgments ix List of Abbreviations xi Introduction: The Wealth of Nations and National Wealth 1(8) The International and Colonial Background of America's Financial Revolution 9(17) The First Financial Revolutions: Holland and Great Britain 10(6) Colonial America: Courts and Experiments 16(2) The First U.S. Information Revolution: From Periphery to Center 18(8) Banks, Securities Markets, and the Reduction of Asymmetric Information 26(17) Adverse Selection 28(4) Moral Hazard 32(5) The Principal-Agent Problem 37(5) Conclusions 42(1) The Financial Sector and the Reduction of Lending-Related Costs and Risks 43(39) Commercial Banking: Intermediation and Information Creation 45(6) The Emergence of Secondary Securities Markets 51(24) The National Bank and the Panic of 1792 75(7) Evidence of Capital Market Integration, 1800--1850 82(41) Brief Descriptions of the Major Securities Markets 82(9) Price Comparisons between Markets 91(3) Price Movements and the Theory of Portfolio Choice 94(3) Evidence of Efficiency: Bid-Ask Spreads 97(2) Geographical Distribution of Stockholders: Maine and Beyond 99(22) Conclusions 121(2) Expansion of the Securities Services Sector, 1790--1850 123(44) Brokers: Their Role and Numbers 124(6) Initial Public Offerings 130(5) Trading Volumes in the Secondary Securities Markets: The Case of Philadelphia 135(24) Nonlisted Securities 159(7) A Brief Sketch of the Expansion of the Securities Sector 166(1) The Freest of the Free: Regulation of the Financial Sector 167(26) Securities Market Regulations 167(6) Special Banking Regulations 173(2) General Banking Regulations in New York: The Revised Statutes, the Safety Fund, and Free Banking 175(18) Finance-Directed Economic Development 193(19) Financing Trade 194(7) Financing Farming through Internal Improvements 201(3) Financing Manufacturing 204(6) Conclusions 210(2) Conclusion 212(5) References 217(10) Index 227