Our financial experience has been practically as extended as that of the older nations of Europe.
When the Republic was organized, Political Economy as understood in the modern sense was in its elementary stage, and indeed could hardly be called a science.

Systems of taxation were everywhere crude and ruthless, and were in large degree fashioned after the Oriental practice of mulcting the man who will pay the most and resist the least.

Adam Smith had published his "Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" in the year of the Declaration of Independence.

Between that time and the formation of the Federal Government his views had exerted no perceptible influence on the financial system of England.

British industries were protected by the most stringent enactments of Parliament, and England was the determined enemy not only of free trade but of fair trade.