Is the RC talking about the Early American Economy or what?

[Terrance Flaherty]

In his study of the Olivers, Baltimore merchants of the 1790s, Stuart
Bruchey points out the remarkable similarity of how business was
organized and conducted in Early America and how in 14th century Venice. 

See The Olivers, Merchants of Baltimore

Monney and Banking in Maryland: A Brief History of Commercial Banking in
the Old Line State
By Stuart R. Bruchey, Denwood N. Kelly, Armand M. Shank, Jr., and
Thomas S. Gordon 
Foreword to the Catalogue by Richard G. Doty of the Smithsonian
Institution 

           For much of early American history banks performed not only
credit services
           but also provided the great bulk of the national money
supply. Suspicion of
           public paper and its administrators among the Founders kept
the government
           out of the business of issuing currency for decades. The
first quarter of               this monumental book is the fascinating
story, told in a style agreeable to 
           the general readers and specialists by the distinguished
economic historian
           Stuart Bruchey, of the development of credit and banknote
practices in the
           first half of the nineteenth century, along with the role of
the Maryland
           General Assembly in chartering early banks. This account is
followed by a
           comprehensive catalogue of early Maryland banknotes and their
           issuers—the first of its kind for Maryland—that will delight
numismatic
           collectors, researchers, and all students of the history of
banking. 


http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~shear/s99abs/NaomiLamoreauxPaper.htm