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Library Journal Review

Perkins (history, Univ. of Southern California) has written a thorough and well-researched financial history of the early years of this country and their effect on the future development of the American economic system. His presentation is quite persuasive and highly informative about the financial system of this period. The book's strength is its chronological coverage, which allows readers to see how the nation's economic system was developed and refined from the colonial through the early national era. The primary drawback is the narrow subject matter, which will limit usage to students and scholars of the era and to financial and economic historians. Recommended for larger academic library collections.-- Robert Logsdon, Indiana State Univ. Lib., Indianapolis (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Perkins (history, Univ. of Southern California) is the author of Financing Anglo-American Trade: The House of Brown, 1800-1880 (CH, Feb'76) and The Economy of Colonial America (CH, Apr'81; 2nd ed., 1988). His new volume "concentrates largely on the institutional development of the American financial services sector from the last decade of the seventeenth century through the first fifteen years of the nineteenth century." Primary attention is given to issues related to banking and the money stock, and state and national government debt, but there are also discussions of marine, fire, and life insurance; lotteries; stocks and bonds; and foreign exchange; with a generally positive assessment of the importance of financial services to American economic development. This clearly written book is aimed at an audience of historians and contains a minimum of technical jargon and relatively few (18) tables of quantitative data. Perkins draws judiciously on the extensive literature on these topics, including the most recent publications. Useful reading for those interested in American history, economic history, and the role of political forces and governmental policies on national development. Public and academic library collections. S. L. Engerman; University of Rochester