The most sophisticated monetary and banking policy advice available in the decades after 1776was found in Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. Smith recommended free competition amongnationwide banks of issue with only minimal legal restrictions and no legal privileges. Yetneither Alexander...

Note: This is a description of the paper and not the abstract as it appeared in the print journal. Some economists believe that the competitive survival of non-interest-bearing currency--the absence of price competition from markets for stored-value cards, banknotes, and token coins--implies a...