“ It is a fact well understood that public Banks have found admission and patronage among the principal and most enlightened commercial nations . . . after an experience of centuries , there exists not a question about their utility in the countries in which they have been so long established . Theories of men and business unite in the acknowledgement of it .”

— Alexander Hamilton , Second Report on Public Credit ,

December 14 , 1790

Top to bottom : First Bank of the United States building in Philadelphia , PA ; Second Bank of the United States building in Philadelphia , PA ; and Marriner S . Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington , DC .

14 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Winter 2023 | www . MoAF . org