Page:A History of Banking in the United States.djvu/436



PERIOD V.—1843-5 TO 1863.

CHAPTER XVI.

§ 1.—The Local Banks, by States; 1845 to 1860.

HE banking capital of the country reached its lowest ebb in 1846, $196.8 millions. The bank note currency was at its lowest in 1843, $58.5 millions. It cannot be doubted, therefore, that the liquidation of this period went far below the normal line before the financial system of the country could be started again in its regular activity. From this time until the civil war the country depended entirely upon the local banks. After the re-enactment of the sub-treasury system, in 1846, the federal government went its own way, using specie in all its transactions, and giving up all responsibility for the currency used by the people. No solution of all the great currency controversies of the last fifteen years had been reached, but this state of things was brought about by a deadlock between all the factions which had been developed by those controversies. No one of them could carry its point.