The Wealth of Nations Rediscovered Integration and Expansion in American Financial Markets, 1780–1850

In The Wealth of Nations Rediscovered: Integration and Expansion in American Financial Markets, 1780–1850, Robert E. Wright portrays the development of a modern financial sector - with a central bank, a national monetary system, and efficient capital markets - as the driving force behind America's economic transition from agricultural colony to industrial juggernaut. This study applies the economic theory of information asymmetry to our understandings of early US financial development, expanding on scholarship of finance-led economic growth. The book's research is original, incorporating little-used archival material and data on early US securities prices, trading volumes, and stockholder patterns. The topics covered - securities trading, market liquidity, intermediation, banking reform, emerging market success, and foreign investment - are relevant to discussions in today's business community. Drawing from and building upon Adam Smith's lesser-known insights into financial relationships, The Wealth of Nations Rediscovered positions itself on the cusp of emerging paradigm shifts in history and economics.

1. Introduction: The Wealth of Nations and national wealth; 2. The international and colonial background of America's financial revolution; 3. Banks, securities markets, and the reduction of asymmetric information; 4. The financial sector and the reduction of lending-related costs and risks; 5. Evidence of capital market integration, 1800–50; 6. Expansion of the securities services sector, 1790–1850; 7. The freest of the free: regulation of the financial sector; 8. Finance-directed economic movement; 9. Conclusion: the wealth of nations rediscovered.

This book portrays the development of a modern financial sector as the driving force behind America's economic transition from agricultural colony to industrial juggernaut. Wright applies the economic theory of information asymmetry to understandings of early US financial development, expanding on recent scholarship of finance-led economic growth.