Although there
are lapses, still, from another point of view, the table will be more
complete, because it embraces all the banks of the United States. On
such an extended field, it is true, we risk seeing great discrepancies
disappear and lose themselves in the magnitude of the amounts whose
movements we follow. In order better to grasp them, we have put before
us the returns of the banks of the United States, together with those of
the Associated Banks of New York City; we may thus recognize and follow
the share played by each of them.
During the first period of the State Banks (1811-1864), the increase in
the number of the banks was continuous, except for two stoppages, in
1841 and in 1862; in 1841, during the liquidation of the panic of 1839,
and in 1862 at the beginning of the War of Secession; the crisis of 1857
did not interrupt the movement.
The capital of the banks had followed the same changes. From $52,000,000
in 1811 to $368,000,000 in 1840, a reduction to $196,000,000 in 1846,
and finally the last maximum reached in 1861, $429,000,000, at the
breaking out of the war. In 1864 a new organization of the banks under
the name of "National Banks" presented to the State Banks, without
suppressing them, a state of affairs destined to cause their
liquidation, which, in fact, practically occurred.
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