After the Revolutionary War, the United States was buried in state and national debt, and Continental paper currency had become nearly worthless. This deep dive follows the life of the First Bank of the United States, the centerpiece of Alexander Hamilton’s plan to assume state war debts, establish a mint, levy excise taxes, and rebuild the nation’s credit.

The episode explains how the bank differed from a modern central bank, the $10 million capitalization with a quarter of public shares paid in gold and silver, and the government’s borrowed $2 million stake. It covers the constitutional clash with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Hamilton’s doctrine of implied powers, the whiskey tax and Whiskey Rebellion, the charter’s expiration in 1811, Stephen Girard’s purchase of the bank, the creation of a second bank in 1816, and the restored Philadelphia building reopened as a museum.

• Why speculators bought war debt certificates from desperate citizens for a fraction of face value
• The bank’s 20-year charter, branch network, and safeguards against corruption and overissue
• How George Washington weighed memos from Randolph, Jefferson, and Hamilton before signing in 1791
• Why frontier farmers saw the whiskey excise as a tax on their livelihood and currency
• The classical temple architecture designed to project permanence and trust in an untested system