Description
This vigorous book takes Oklahoma history into the world of Wild West capitalism. It begins with a useful survey of banking from the early days of the American republic until commercial patterns coalesced in the East. It then follows the course of American expansion westward, tracing the evolution of commerce and banking in Oklahoma from their genesis to the eve of statehood in 1907.
Banking in Oklahoma before Statehood is not only a story of men sitting at the back of desks. Writer Michael J. Hightower describes the riverboat trade in the Arkansas and Red River valleys and freighting at the Santa Fe Trail. Shortages of both currency and credit posed major impediments to regional commerce until storekeepers solved these problems by moving beyond barter to open ad hoc establishments referred to as merchant banks.
Banking went through a wild adolescence throughout the territorial period. The era saw robberies and insider shenanigans, rivalries between banks with territorial and national charters, speculation in land and natural resources, and land fraud in the Indian Territory. But as banking matured, the better-capitalized institutions became the nucleus of commercial culture in the Oklahoma and Indian Territories.
To tell this story, the Writer blends documentary historical research in both public and corporate archives with his own interviews and those who WPA field-workers conducted with old-timers throughout the New Deal. Bankers were never far from the action throughout the territorial period, and the institutions they built were both cause and effect of Oklahoma’s inclusion in national networks of banking and commerce. The no-holds-barred brand of capitalism that breathed life into the Oklahoma frontier has remained alive and well for the reason that days of the fur traders. As one knowledgable observer said in the 1980s, “You’ve at all times had the gambling spirit in Oklahoma.”
Banking in Oklahoma before Statehood is not only a story of men sitting at the back of desks. Writer Michael J. Hightower describes the riverboat trade in the Arkansas and Red River valleys and freighting at the Santa Fe Trail. Shortages of both currency and credit posed major impediments to regional commerce until storekeepers solved these problems by moving beyond barter to open ad hoc establishments referred to as merchant banks.
Banking went through a wild adolescence throughout the territorial period. The era saw robberies and insider shenanigans, rivalries between banks with territorial and national charters, speculation in land and natural resources, and land fraud in the Indian Territory. But as banking matured, the better-capitalized institutions became the nucleus of commercial culture in the Oklahoma and Indian Territories.
To tell this story, the Writer blends documentary historical research in both public and corporate archives with his own interviews and those who WPA field-workers conducted with old-timers throughout the New Deal. Bankers were never far from the action throughout the territorial period, and the institutions they built were both cause and effect of Oklahoma’s inclusion in national networks of banking and commerce. The no-holds-barred brand of capitalism that breathed life into the Oklahoma frontier has remained alive and well for the reason that days of the fur traders. As one knowledgable observer said in the 1980s, “You’ve at all times had the gambling spirit in Oklahoma.”
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