Bank of North America

Bank of North America's original location at 307Chestnut Street in Philadelphia
Company type	Public (1781–1785) Private (1785–1929)
Industry	Financial services
Founded	December 31, 1781 (1781-12-31), inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Founders	Robert Morris,Alexander Hamilton,William Bingham, and others
Fate	Merger
Successor	Pennsylvania Company for Insurances on Lives and Granting Annuities (1929) Wells Fargo (2008)
Headquarters	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , United States
Area served	United States
Key people	Thomas Willing (president 1781–1792) Tench Francis, Jr. (cashier)

TheBank of North America was the first chartered bank in the United States, and served as the country's firstde factocentral bank.^[1] It was chartered by theCongress of the Confederation on May 26, 1781, and opened inPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania, on January 7, 1782.^[2][3][4]

The bank's founding was based on a plan presented bySuperintendent of FinanceRobert Morris on May 17, 1781,^[5] including recommendations byRevolutionary-eraFounding FatherAlexander Hamilton, who was later appointed the firstU.S. Secretary of the Treasury byGeorge Washington. Although Hamilton later noted the bank's "essential" contribution to theAmerican Revolutionary War, the Pennsylvania government objected to its privileges and reincorporated it under state law, making it unsuitable as a national bank under theU.S. Constitution.Congress instead chartered theFirst Bank of the United States, a new bank, in 1791, while the Bank of North America continued as a private concern.

In May 1781,Alexander Hamilton revealed that he had recommendedRobert Morris for the position ofSuperintendent of Finance of the United States the previous summer when the constitution of theArticles of Confederation-era executive was being solidified. He also proceeded to lay out a proposal for a national bank that would serve as ade factocentral bank.

Morris corresponded with Hamilton previously on the subject of funding the war, and immediately drafted a legislative proposal based on Hamilton's suggestion and submitted it to the Congress. Morris persuaded Congress to charter the Bank of North America, the first private commercial bank in the United States.^[7] His friend, Dr.Hugh Shiell, paid £5000 to the capital stock.^[8]

The original charter as outlined by Hamilton called for the disbursement of 1,000 shares priced at $400 each.^[9] Benjamin Franklin purchased a single token share as a sign of good faith toFederalists and their new bank. Hamilton used his pseudonym "Publius", later immortalized in theFederalist Papers advocating in the late 1780s for adoption of theUnited States Constitution, to endorse the bank.^[10]

William Bingham, rumored to be the richest man in America after theRevolutionary War,^[11] purchased 9.5% of the available shares. The greatest share, however, 63.3%, was purchased on behalf of the United States government by Robert Morris, using a gift in the form of a loan fromFrance and a loan fromNetherlands.^[12] This had the effect of capitalizing the bank with large deposits of gold and silver coin andbills of exchange. He then issued new paper currency backed by this supply.^[13]

Thomas Willing, who served two terms asmayor of Philadelphia and was a partner with Morris in an import-export firm that once dominated the city'sslave trade,^[14] was named the bank's first president. He held that office from 1781 to 1791, being succeeded byJohn Nixon, and moving immediately on to become the first president of theFirst Bank of the United States, a position he held from 1791 to 1807.^[15][16]

The bank issued its own notes that superseded the troubledContinental currency bills. These notes were printed on paper with colored fibers pressed into thereverse side as an anti-counterfeiting measure. Unlike the Continental bills, the new notes carried a promise to pay silver on demand. Despite these changes, the bank had difficulty at first persuading people of its good credit, and at one point it employed repossessors to follow people who redeemed notes and urge them to deposit the money back. To promote the impression that it had a large reserve, the bank made a show of moving cash boxes to and from its cellar. Once the stock was fully subscribed and paid, doubts subsided and the notes rose topar value.^[2] By 1783, several states includingMassachusetts enacted legislation allowing Americans to pay taxes with Bank of North America notes,^[17] giving them a crucial aspect oflegal tender.

In the economic turmoil that followed theAmerican Revolutionary War, the bank's strictness in collecting debts drew opposition from Pennsylvania residents, who petitioned thePennsylvania General Assembly to revoke the state charter granted to it in 1782. The charter was revoked in 1785, although the bank continued to operate with difficulty under its congressional charter and then under aDelaware charter. The following year, the Pennsylvania General Assembly granted a new charter with several restrictions, including that it could not trade any merchandise other thanbullion.^[2] The Bank of North America,First Bank of the United States, andBank of New York were the first shares traded on theNew York Stock Exchange.

After the passage of theNational Bank Act in 1862, the Bank of North America converted its business to operate under the new law. Its unique history presented a problem: the act required a national bank to include the word "national" in its name. The bank's management considered its original name a matter of prestige and took the position that the name remained fixed by the Confederation and state charters. TheComptroller of the Currency chose not to press these legal questions and admitted the bank without a name change.^[7]

The bank merged in 1923 with the Commercial Trust Company to become the Bank of North America and Trust Company, which merged in 1929 with the Pennsylvania Company for Insurances on Lives and Granting Annuities. That company, operating as the Pennsylvania Company for Banking and Trust, merged with theFirst National Bank in 1955 to becomeThe First Pennsylvania Banking and Trust Company, which was acquired byCoreStates Financial Corporation in 1991, byFirst Union/Wachovia in 1998, and byWells Fargo in 2008.^[3]

• Congressional charter
• Turner v. Bank of North America (1799)

• Rappleye, Charles (2010).Robert Morris: Financier of the American Revolution. New York:Simon & Schuster. pp. 229–528.ISBN 978-1416570912.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toBank of North America.

• The Bank of North America, Philadelphia, a National Bank, Founded 1781: The Story of Its Progress through the Last Quarter of a Century, 1881–1906, by Robert Grier Cooke Incorporated (1906).
• Debates and Proceedings of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, on the Memorials Praying a Repeal of Suspension of the Law Annulling the Charter of the Bank (ed. Mathew Carey, 1786).
• A History of the Bank of North America, the First Bank Chartered in the United States, by Lawrence Lewis, Jr. (J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1882).
• Legislative and Documentary History of the Bank of the United States: Including the Original Bank of North America, by Matthew St. Clair Clarke and David A. Hall. This collection of documents was aimed to include the entire proceedings, debates, and resolutions of Congress relating to the Bank of North America, the First (1791–1811) Bank of the United States, and the Second (1816–1836) Bank of the United States. These documents were compiled four years before the closing of the Second Bank.
• Legislative and Documentary History of the Banks of the United States, from the Time of Establishing the Bank of North America, 1781, to October 1834; with Notes and Comments, by R. K. Moulton. An attempt to compile all the public documents considered to be essential in attaining a thorough knowledge of the national banking operations of the United States, from 1781 to 1834.
• Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. PA-1391, "Bank of North America, 305-307 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA", 4 photos, 4 data pages, 2 photo caption pages

• 1781 establishments in Pennsylvania
• 1929 disestablishments in Pennsylvania
• American companies established in 1781
• American companies disestablished in 1929
• Banks based in Pennsylvania
• Banks established in 1781
• Banks disestablished in 1929
• Chestnut Street (Philadelphia)
• Corporations chartered by the United States Congress
• Former central banks and banks of issue
• Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia
• History of banking
• Ordinances of the Continental Congress

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