Concerning your first question, take a look at Part 1 in Murray Rothbard’s A History of Money and Banking in the United States.
http://library.mises.org/books/Murray%20N%20Rothbard/History%20of%20Money%20and%20Banking%20in%20the%20United%20States%20The%20Colonial%20Era%20to%20World%20War%20II.pdf
