. . .The era of good times came to a sudden end in 1819 when the nation was visited by a disastrous money panic. Nearly all the specie had been shipped abroad, and large sums of paper money had been issued, much of it on credit of a questionable nature. The general commercial expansion following the war had led to extensive speculation all over the country. When the new United States Bank suddenly began a vicious and relentless campaign against all other banks of issue in an ill-advised effort to force them immediately to a specie basis, loans were called in everywhere, the circulation was greatly contracted, prices fell, manufacturers and merchants were unable to meet their obligations, factories shut down, mercantile firms went into bankruptcy, banks closed their doors, and business everywhere was completely prostrated. To make matters worse, the export price of the great "money crop," cotton, fell from 32 cents in 1818 to 17½ cents in 1820. The provision market of the wester. . . Read More