of Trustees , and I would be remiss if I did not thank all members of the Board , past and present , for their dedication to the Museum ’ s mission of financial education and preservation . The mission continues ; it must . We have to teach people that finance is a key technology for moving resources backward and forward in time , and that the ability to do that makes our lives better .
I referred earlier to my TIAA retirement accounts , which grew over time as Roger and others oversaw them . That was using the financial system to transfer resources forward in time , specifically to me now in retirement . As I and my university saved for my retirement , I also had several home mortgage loans . That was using the financial system to transfer resources backward in time , using my future income to make it possible for me and my family to purchase homes in 1970 , 1994 and 2007 . Because the financial system allows some individuals , entrepreneurs , businesses and governments to transfer resources backward in time , from the future to the present , others are able to transfer resources forward in time . My own experience with home
mortgage loans and retirement savings indicates that sometimes we can do these things simultaneously .
In my view , we also downplay the role of finance in building our country . Economic historians still argue that our country became the richest in the world because it had a transportation revolution and an industrial revolution , as well as vast western territories to be opened up for settlement approximately 200 years ago . In this rendering of our history , little is said that the West itself was added to the country by the use of credit , exemplified by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 — bought from France by issuing millions of dollars of US Treasury bonds .
New York did the same thing when it built the Erie Canal . It used existing bond markets to borrow the money to dig the canal . And the railroads were built by issuing bonds and stocks on equity and bond markets that existed . Manufacturers borrowed from banks to introduce those mass production technologies , and they issued equity shares in the securities markets that were already well established . In short , financial development in our country preceded and did much to make possible our territorial expansion , as well as our transportation and industrial revolutions .
No one did more to begin America ’ s precocious financial development than Alexander Hamilton , and that ’ s the key reason why I regard Hamilton as the most important of our Founding Fathers . Hamilton was a student of financial history , and he concluded that the ability to transfer resources backward and forward in time was an essential ingredient of both effective government and national security , and of a country ’ s economic growth and development .
Hamilton foresaw a glorious future for the United States , and he did much to make that future by doing more than anyone else to establish and nurture our financial system . In the 1790s , as a result of Hamilton ’ s work , the US economy began to grow by leaps and bounds until in a little more than a century it was the largest economy in the world . Hence , I ’ m proud and grateful to see Hamilton ’ s visage on the beautiful plaque that the Museum has awarded me tonight .
10 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Winter 2021 | www . MoAF . org