THOMAS.BEHNKEDr. Herbener, the source that you provided is helping a lot. It made me think of one additional question though.
I know I read somewhere (possibly Rothbard’s The Case Against the Fed?) that before people earned interest on their deposits, they paid a small fee to keep their deposits in banks. Essentially, banks were nothing more than storage vaults. Banks made their money exclusively from the storage fees.
When did this occur? It doesn’t look like it happened in America at all, because even the 1790 central bank was operating on a fractional-reserve system. During this time, were people still paying that small fee (and not collecting interest on their deposits) even though the banks weren’t keeping the deposits 100% secure.
Thanks again for your help.