Pre-1861 United States State Bank Balance Sheets

This data set consists of individual bank balance sheets for the antebellum period in the United States compiled from reports of state banking authorities. The data set is updated periodically. For each state, data are available in two forms. The worksheet “detailed” contains the data in as detailed a form as in the original source. In the worksheet “standardized”, data are presented in a consistent set of asset and liability categories for each bank.

In the compilation, individual asset and liability categories have been preserved as much as possible. The data have also been modified in two primary ways:

• Where the original data have both differences between assets and liabilities for a given bank and corresponding differences in reported aggregated totals for individual asset/liability categories, the data have been changed to eliminate such differences.
• Where the original data have obvious inaccuracies (e.g., capital of $100,000 for several years in a row and then $10,000 for one year), such inaccuracies have been corrected. Note also that for many dates, aggregate totals for individual asset/liability categories do not match reported data, presumably due to calculation and other errors by the original compilers.

To cite this data set, please use this reference:

Weber, Warren E. 2011. Balance sheets for U.S. Antebellum State Banks. Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. http://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/economists/wewproj.html.

Some of the downloadable Excel files that follow use Pre-1900 dates that Excel does not natively handle.

Pre-1900 Date Functions Add-In

Some of the downloadable Excel files that follow use Pre-1900 dates that Excel does not natively handle. We wrote an Add-In to overcome this limitation. Download the Pre-1900 Date Functions Add-In, copy it to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\Library (for Microsoft Office XP). Then open Excel, go to Tools | Add-Ins and check the corresponding box.

Census of State Banks

Download an Excel spreadsheet of a thorough census of state banks from 1789 through 1862 in the United States. This file contains the beginning and ending dates for all banks that existed in the United States prior to 1861. It also contains the sources for these dates. The information in this spreadsheet is an update of that in Warren E. Weber, "Early State Banks in the United States: How Many Were There and When Did They Exist?" Journal of Economic History, 433-455, June 2006.

Banknote Discounts

Discounts on bank notes in Philadelphia from Bicknell’s and Van Court’s, 1832-1858 [xls]

To cite this data set, please use this reference:

Gorton, Gary and Weber, Warren E. Quoted Discounts on State Bank Notes in Philadelphia, 1832-1858. Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. http://minneapolisfed.org/research/economists/wewproj.html

Discounts on bank notes in New York, selected dates, 1817-1859 [xlsx]

To cite this data set, please use this reference:

Weber, Warren E. Quoted Discounts on State Bank Notes in New York, Cincinnati, and Cleveland, selected dates, 1827-1858. Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. http://minneapolisfed.org/research/economists/wewproj.html

Discounts on bank notes from Van Court’s - Gorton’s original data [xls]

Dividends of Massachusetts Banks, 1807-1861 [xls]

Images of Minnesota Money

Video—Watch growth of U.S. Banks from 1780 - 1861

Download: QuickTime [mov] | Windows Media [wmv]

U.S. National Banks, 1880-1910

U.S. National Banks. 1880-1910. Disaggregated Call Reports for U.S. National Banks [xls]

This spreadsheet contains the disaggregated call reports by state and reserve city for each call report date. These data appear as compiled by the Comptrolleur of the Currency. A full description of the data can be found here.

To cite this data set, please use this reference:

Weber, Warren E. 2000. Disaggregated Call Reports for U.S. National Banks, 1880-1910.  Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. http://research.mpls.frb.fed.us/research/economists/wewproj.html.

Some Monetary Facts

Data for “Some Monetary Facts” [xls]

McCandless and Weber, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Quarterly Review, Summer 1995 (reprinted Fall 2001).

“Railroad Stock Prices”

Indices of Railroad-Stock Prices Quarterly, 1834-1845 [xls]

U.S. National Banks, 1880-1910

International Data. 1810-1995 Spreadsheet [xls]

This spreadsheet contains data for Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US. for the period 1810-1995. The data report:
- Specie
- M0
- M2
- Prices
- Output