Megan, John Joseph2015-11-092015-11-0919521952b14763795https://hdl.handle.net/2144/13473Thesis (M.A.)--Boston UniversityThe background to the Federal Reserve Act lies greatly in early American banking experience, in the First and Second Banks of the United States, free banking, and the Independent Treasury System. The growing need for a general banking measure was met by the National Banking Act in 1863, prompted by the fiscal needs of the Civil War. [TRUNCATED]en-USBased on investigation of the BU Libraries' staff, this work is free of known copyright restrictions.Thesis/Dissertation