One of the pioneers of banking: Who is Nicholas Biddle?

(1786-1844) American banker. For the first time, he managed a bank that worked like today's central banks. He was born on January 6, 1786, in Philadelphia, and died on February 27, 1844, in the same place. After graduating from New Jersey College at Princeton in 1801, he studied law. Between 1804 and 1807 he held diplomatic missions in England and France. After returning to his country, he did his law internship.

Nicholas Biddle (January 8, 1786 – February 27, 1844) was an American financier who served as the third and last president of the Second Bank of the United States (chartered 1816–1836). Throughout his life, Biddle worked as an editor, diplomat, author, and politician who served in both houses of the Pennsylvania state legislature. He is best known as the chief opponent of Andrew Jackson in the Bank War.

He was a member of the Pennsylvania Senate from 1814 to 1818. In 1818, at the request of President Monroe, he prepared a report for the State Department called Commercial Regulations of Foreign Countries with which the United States Have Commercial Interconrce.

In 1819, he became one of five government executives of the Second Bank, a public-private-equity partnership. He was appointed general manager of the bank by President Monroe in 1823. Biddle allowed branches to issue checks for money on behalf of the bank's headquarters, thereby expanding credit. The market revived with the circulation of branch checks. The method used by Biddle in Second Bank caused reactions from businessmen who had credit problems in regions where the bank did not have branches.

President Jackson revoked the bank's franchise, believing that if the power of the bank was not controlled it would create a financial oligarchy, official deposits were withdrawn in 1833. Biddle reorganized the bank as the United States Bank of Pennsylvania in 1836 and became its managing director. He retired in 1839, two years later the bank fell into a financial depression and closed.

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Further Reading on Nicholas Biddle

https://economic-historian.com/2021/02/nicholas-biddle/