Aldrich-Vreeland Act
ALDRICH-VREELAND ACT
ALDRICH-VREELAND ACT, an emergency currency law enacted 30 May 1908, as a result of the bankers' panic of 1907. Its aim was to give elasticity to the currency by permitting national banks to issue additional currency on bonds of states, cities, towns, and counties, as well as commercial paper. The act also created the National Monetary Commission to investigate monetary systems and banking abroad and to advise Congress on reforms of the American banking system. The numerous reports of the commission contributed to the creation of the Federal Reserve System by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 (the Glass-Owen Act).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Degen, Robert A. The American Monetary System: A Concise Survey of Its Evolution Since 1896. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1987.
Friedman, Milton, and Anna Jacobson Schwartz. A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1963.
Thomas J.Mertz
Jeannette P.Nichols
See alsoFinancial Panics ; National Monetary Commission .