THE CONCENTRATION OF BANKING INTERESTS 

 IN THE UNITED STATES. 



BY CHARLES J. BULLOCK. 



[Charles Jesse Bullock, professor of economics, Williams college; author; born Boston, 

 May 21, 1869; graduated Boston university 1889 Author, The Finances of the 

 United States, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, Introduction 

 to the Study of Economics. Editor : A Discourse Concerning the Currencies of the 

 British Plantations in North America, by William Douglass.] 



Ever since Andrew Jackson overthrew the Second Bank 

 of the United States, the American banking system has con- 

 sisted of a large number of small institutions possessing little 

 desire or power of helpful cooperation. Large banks with nu- 

 merous branches, such as exist in Canada and Scotland, have 

 been unknown in the United States, save for a few transient 

 enterprises of ante bellum days. A central institution, enjoy- 

 ing federal patronage and serving to unify banking interests, 

 has been a political impossibility since Nicholas Biddle rashly 

 ventured upon a trial of strength with the masterful statesman 

 from Tennessee. National banks, state banks, private banks, 

 trust companies, competing vigorously for public favor, have 

 met tolerably well the needs of the country in fair weather; 

 but in times of stress and storm these separate institutions 

 have been unable to oppose a united front to the forces of finan- 

 cial disorder. Yet, upon the whole, this decentralization of 

 banking interests has been generally approved as democratic 

 in its tendencies and well adapted to the diverse needs of our 

 vast territory. 



At the head of the system stand the national banks, 

 which possess the exclusive power to issue circulating notes. 

 For twenty years following the Civil war this privilege remained 

 sufficiently remunerative to gain for these institutions a de- 

 cided predominance over the banks of deposit and discount 

 incorporated by the several states ; but since the early eighties 

 causes which are well understood have reduced the profit de- 

 rived from the issue of notes, and have decreased the attract- 

 iveness of a federal charter. In 1884 there were 2,550 nation- 

 al 



