PREFACE. HG481 D9 IN making this collection, my object has been to bring within the easy reach of students and teachers of Political Economy and History the important parts of our national legislation respecting Currency, Coinage, Loans, and Banking. For this purpose the Acts of Congress have been carefully examined, and the leading provisions upon these subjects are now presented in their chronological order, following with precision the text given in the Statutes at Large. Acts and provisions of less consequence in financial history, but still likely to require occasional attention, have been abridged or described in their natural connection. Finally, acts and provisions seldom referred to in ordinary use, as, for example, those relating to small loans, to banks in the District of Columbia, and to minor coinage, together with most provisions which are strictly administrative or punitive, have been omitted altogether, as lying outside of the necessary limits of a book intended for use as a manual. Little reference has been made to the Revised Statutes, the object of the compilation not being to present 810 a view of subsisting law at any one period, past or present; but to give the course of legislation, accurately and with sufficient fulness to enable the student to make a thorough examination of it, without the necessity of constant reference to the formidable collection of Statutes at Large. Besides the acts and resolutions of Congress, treated as above stated, certain vetoed bills and a few other papers of historical importance have been added, in order to facilitate reference to a class of documents which the student of political and economic history often finds as valuable, for purposes of study, as the measures which actually secure a place on the pages of the statute book. HARVARD UNIVERSITY, March 4, 1891. CHARLES F. DUNBAR, |