That's a little disappointing. I enjoyed the real world game theory involved in the fanciful account.

Undisciplined

In my reading of this history, this wildcat banking idea is _mostly_ a myth -- tracing back to exaggerations by a very motivated commissioner in 1838. 

Gerard Dwyer has [a good rundown](https://www.atlantafed.org/-/media/documents/research/publications/economic-review/1996/12/vol81nos3-6_dwyer.pdf
) on how most of these tales are myths or unsubstantiated. 

The standard reference here is [Hammond’s book](https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691005539/banks-and-politics-in-america-from-the-revolution-to-the-civil-war), _Banks and Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War_




denlillaapan

econ

Good and Bad Banknotes (Journal of Monetary Economics, Gary Gorton)

My recollection is that there were lots of bank runs and failures during this time, which is one reason that some banks of the era chose to locate in hard to reach places.