A fiat money system was introduced in the seventeenth century by a prominent public bank of the time, the Bank of Amsterdam. Employing data from the bank׳s archives, we show that bank money became a more attractive transactions medium following a 1683 policy change, which unbundled the bank׳s...

Though checks' popularity is now waning in favor of electronic payments, checks were, for much of the twentieth century, the most widely used noncash payment method in the United States. How did such a relatively inefficient form of payment become so dominant? This article traces the historical...

Though checks' popularity is now waning in favor of electronic payments, checks were, for much of the twentieth century, the most widely used noncash payment method in the United States. How did such a relatively inefficient form of payment become so dominant? This article traces the historical...