Upon Daedalian wings of paper money
Subtitle: Adam Smith and the Crisis of 1772
By: Hugh Rockoff.
Contributors: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 15594; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 15594.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "Adam Smith advocated laissez faire for most sectors of the economy, but he believed that banking and finance required several forms of regulation including usury laws and the prohibition of small-denomination bank notes.  Smith's support for banking regulation appears to have been a response to the shocks that hit the Scottish banking system during the time that he was composing the Wealth of Nations.  The most important was the Crisis of 1772, which has been described as the first modern banking crisis faced by the Bank of England.  It resembles the Crisis of 2008 in a number of striking ways.  This paper describes the Crisis of 1772, the other shocks that hit the Scottish banking system, and the evolution of Smith's views on the regulation of banking.  It is based on Smith's writings, the secondary sources, and a quantification of the new issues of Scottish bank notes during Smith's era"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 12/29/2009.

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