The nature of America’s early economy has been contested for several decades. Historians have often focused on the question of when America became capitalist , while economists have tried to determine when American economic growth sped up. In The Origins of Commercial Banking in America Robert Wright addresses both questions and argues that the ultimate causes of American economic development and transformation into a modern society can be reduced to the causes of American commercial banking. Wright analyzes why American banking arose when, and with the particular characteristics, it did.