| Section 12: U.S. banks and money | Next | Section Index |
| Notes from two banks that couldn’t quite hang on In 1791, Congress granted a twenty-year charter to the First Bank of the United States. The Second Bank of the United States operated on a similar charter from 1816 to 1836. Besides providing commercial banking services, the two banks also controlled note issuance of state banks and served as the federal government’s financial agent. But critics of federal control opposed these banks, and neither bank could muster enough political support to stay in existence. |
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