Early financial history of Missouri

Abstract

The financial history of Missouri properly begins with the history of the territory of which Missouri was, in the earliest time, a part. That territory, however, the field of attempted French colonization and of Spanish dominion, affords matter rather for an interesting chapter of French or Spanish financial history than for a financial history of Missouri. It may almost be said that only geographical reasons justify including in this paper a chapter on the Spanish period. Certain it is that there is no continuous development, and we shall see that there is little influence to be traced from the former period to the development under the jurisdiction of the United States. But on account of what little there may be I shall notice briefly the period of Spanish domination. I pass over with slight notice the French period because there was not even the geographical reason for its consideration, there having been no settlement in the territory that is now Missouri until after the transfer of the country to Spain. Only so far as the French period affected Spanish policy will be noticed.