The major colonial land bank experiments seem to be these:
1681: The Fund at Boston, In New England
1686: “Blackwell’s Bank” [proposed]
1732: Connecticut land bank
1714: Boston land bank [proposed]
1740: Land Bank, or Manufactory Scheme, Boston
The debates surrounding them, beginning with Potter’s Key of Wealth, includes roughly 25-30 major pamphlets, prospectuses, decrees, etc. All of these were published by Andrew McFarland Davis, roughly one hundred years ago. The subject was already obscure by the time William B. Greene was made aware of it, in 1857. Subsequently, radicals and intellectual historians alike seem to have paid relatively little attention to the topic. But something like one-third of the documents have, one way or another, found their way into electronic archives. I’m happy to add four more to that number:
- Prospectus of the Land Bank, or Manufatory Company 1739, 40
- A letter to —– —–, merchant in London concerning a late combination in the province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England, to impose or force a private-currency called land-bank-money. 1741
- A Letter to the merchant in London, to whom is directed a printed letter relating to the manufactory undertaking, dated New England, Boston February 21st 1740,1
- A Petition of London Merchants to Parliament, 11 February 1741
Eventually, it should be possible to get all 30 or so original documents, together with some of Davis’ commentary, all in one place. But the real task is to place the debate in the context of mutualist history. Davis considered the land banks ill-advised and freakish, dispite the labor he put into unearthing their history. Greene saw them in a very different light, as do some of my contemporary readers.
