Description:

Bank of the United States -
Samuel Coates, Director of the First Bank of the United States, keeps accounting book between 1800-1806

Pocket sized accounting book, approximately fifty-page booklet with soft marbleized covers, measuring 3.875" x 6.25". Front cover inscribed "Bank U. States with Saml Coates". In very good to near fine condition with expected wear. The booklet is attached to the front cover but has become unhinged from the back cover. A few ink splatters and light toning do not affect the entries within.

In the accounting book, Coates records financial transactions made between the Bank of the United States and various individuals from January 21, 1800 to July 16, 1806. Deposits and withdrawals were mostly made in cash and check in amounts ranging from around $50 to $10,000. Entries have been organized and crossed out when resolved. Individuals are listed by name or by initials.

Samuel Coates (1748-1830) was a successful Philadelphia-based Quaker merchant, trading manufactured goods, textiles, rum, molasses, and other commodities domestically and abroad. He was also very involved in the community, which happened to be the nation's first financial and political capital. During his lifetime, Coates served as Treasurer of the Library Company of Philadelphia, and sat on the boards of the Pennsylvania Hospital and Public Schools of Philadelphia.

Coates was elected to the Directorship of the First Bank of the United States in January 1800, and he served in this capacity between then and 1811, when the twenty-year charter expired. He was appointed director only about two weeks before he started making entries in this accounting book. Coates was both savvy and financially conservative, enabling him to give out 20% dividend returns to investors during his directorship. Archival material relating to Coates's extremely well-documented life is housed in the Baker Library Special Collections at Harvard University Library, as well as the Samuel Coates Collection at the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan.

The First Bank of the United States was launched to stabilize the new nation's economy, standardize its financial practices, establish a currency, and build its credit in the world. Its early champion was Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804). Although Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and other partisans opposed the Bank as unconstitutional, 1st U.S. President George Washington (1732-1799) approved the "bank bill" in 1791. Its successor, the Second Bank of the United States, operated between 1816 and 1836.

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