The California Institute of Technology historian John Brewer suggests that Britain’s development from a peripheral player in Europe to one at the center of world affairs owed more to its bankers and bureaucrats than to its generals and soldiers. In particular, he was impressed with the Bank of England, which had performed well as the central bank for a growing British Empire since it was established in 1694.
Hamilton wanted the fledgling new country to grow and become a commercial and military rival to the great powers in Europe. In many ways, the DNA of what would become the Federal Reserve System was a compromise between the two men’s visions about the proper role of government in the economy. Jefferson and Hamilton are archetypes of one of the most enduring debates in American politics, a debate over the nature of government and the centralization of political power.
