2002/06/01 by Peter L. Rousseau · 1 citation
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #American Constitutional Law and Politics #Distribution (mathematics) #Economic policy #Economic, financial, and policy analysis #Economics #Government (linguistics) #Historical Economic and Social Studies #International economics #Keynesian economics #Law #Macroeconomics #Monetary economics #Newspaper #Panic #Political science #Shock (circulatory)
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0022050702000566
openalex publication_date 2002/06/01 · openalex created_date 2021/02/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
A number of hypotheses attempt to disentangle the “true” causes of the Panic of 1837 from domestic and international factors that came into play as the crisis approached. I analyze U.S. government documents and contemporary newspapers to reconsider the role of domestic factors. These sources place neither the official distribution of the federal surplus nor an international shock at the center. Rather, a series of interbank transfers of government balances and a policy-induced increase in the demand for coin in the Western states drained the largest New York City banks of their specie reserves and rendered the panic inevitable.