The thesis is an economic study of Louisiana's banking and financial system from the chartering of the first bank in 1804 to the Civil War. Primary attention is focused on the chartered banks, and on the years after the mid 1820's. This emphasis results in part from the limitations of available evidence but also from a belief that the chartered bank was the most important financial institution and that the major development of the Louisiana economy occurred after 1820. The study moves from an examination of the internal structure of the banking system itself to its setting in the state and worldwide financial system, its relations to government policy, and finally to the role of the financial system in the fluctuations and developmental patterns in the larger economy.