Mary--Thank you very much for a fascinating tour of some banking  
history.  You convince me, but then what you say is very close to  
what I tell my  
students anyway about the use of bank notes, state-issued paper money,  
the constitution, etc.  (Using, I might add, Mary's work as one of the  
sources, along with the "dated" Bray Hammond whose discussion of the 2nd  
Bank is, in my view, still superior to that of Temin who confuses central  
banks of the 20th century with emerging central banks in an earlier and  
quite different time.) 
 
At the same time it still seems to me that the possibly imaginary  
Philadelphian could be said to have been expressing a reasonable view in  
Philadelphia throughout much of the early 19th century.  In Philadelphia,  
when bank notes were not in such common use, as well as later, when  
they were, there must have been great pressure not to demand specie when  
specie was perceived to be in inadequate supply locally.  Directly  
economic pressure if you were a stockholder because even if you know that  
such stuff happens you would still rather avoid it, and indirect pressure  
if you owe money to stockholders because you wouldn't want to be the  
trigger for a run.   
 
Perhaps I am missing something.  I will save and ponder Mary's message  
at some point when my brain is fresher.  Happy weekend.   
 
Anne Mayhew 
1101 McClung Tower 
University of Tennessee 
Knoxville, TN 37996-0411 
PH: 615-974-1689; FAX: 615-974-3915; E-MAIL: [log in to unmask]