The Early Development of Commerce and Banking in Tennessee

Abstract

In 1795 Andrew Jackson established a store at Clover Bottom, near Nashville. In order to procure his wares, he had gone to Philadelphia and sold 50,000 acres of Tennessee land. Having made his purchases, his boxes and barrels were loaded on wagons and hauled to Pittsburgh. A flatboat carried them thence to the mouth of the Cumberland, where they were transferred to keel boats and poled up the river past Nashville to the landing near Clover 'Bottom.' On a similar journey in 1804, Jackson carried home a suite of living-room furniture in addition to his merchandise, and he has left us a detailed account of his expenses en route, including his own tavern bills and a statement of provisions purchased for the "hands." 2 During these early days, the principal currency of Tennessee consisted of "guard certificates," a species of redeemable scrip furnished to the soldiers who performed guard duty on the frontier.3 This being the case, Jackson received little cash for his goods, but took his pay largely in peltry and cotton. These articles, under the care of one of his partners, were boated down to New Orleans and sold for cash. 4 Boatmen who thus disposed of their goods often put their money into a rawhide bag and, taking their chances with the. Indians and highwaymen, returned to Nashville over the Natchez Trace.5Such was the course of trade during the frontier period. The merchant furnished his own capital, his own transportation, and did his own buying and selling. It is hardly necessary to say that 1j. S. Bassett (ed.), Correspondence of Andrew Jackson (Washington, 1926), I, 15, 21. 2 Ibid., I, 92-96. 3 Account book of H. Tatum, merchant, Nashville, 1793-98, ms. belonging to Tennessee Historical Society. 4 Bassett, op. cit., I, 89-90, 99-101. 5

Credit Market Discipline and Capitalist Slavery in Antebellum South Carolina

“…51.Mathias 1973. Tennessee set up a similar bank in 1819, the State Bank of Tennessee, with a mandate to lend to landowners at a maximum of $500 in inconvertible notes (Abernethy 1927). …”