Interbank payments relationships in the antebellum United States: evidence from Pennsylvania

The antebellum interbank relationships using a previously unknown microdata set for Pennsylvania banks from 1851 to 1859 that disaggregate the amounts due from other banks by debtor bank were examined. The study revealed that country banks dealt exclusively with financial center banks, had a stable and large financial relationship with a single bank and location of the correspondent of the country banks was consistent with the likely trade patterns particularly railroad and canal linkages.