NATIONAL MONETARY COMMISSION

NATIONAL MONETARY COMMISSION, a commission established by the Aldrich-Vreeland Act of 30 May 1908 to "inquire into and report to Congress … what changes are necessary or desirable in the monetary system of the United States or in the laws relating to banking and currency."

The commission, composed of nine members of the Senate and nine members of the House of Representatives, with Senator Nelson Aldrich as chairman, was duly appointed and proceeded to carry out its designated task. It appointed experts to make studies of banking history and existing conditions in the United States and other countries, and in the summer of 1908 members of the commission visited England, France, and Germany to ascertain their banking arrangements, methods, and practices by personal observation and interviews.

On 8 January 1912 the commission submitted its report to Congress. The report contained a summary of the work done by the commission, and by experts and others employed by it, as well as a description and text of a proposed law to remedy a number of existing defects as enumerated in the report. The proposed law contained provisions for the establishment of a National Reserve Association with branches to act as a central bank for the United States (see Federal Reserve System). The monographs and articles, prepared for the commission by experts and published in conjunction with the report, numbered more than forty and constituted, at the time, one of the most comprehensive banking libraries available.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Broz, J. Lawrence. The International Origins of the Federal Reserve System. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1997.

Degen, Robert A. The American Monetary System: A Concise Survey of Its Evolution since 1896. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1987.

Frederick A.Bradford/c. w.

See alsoBanking .