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for getting trade acceptance adopted on a wide scale by American 

businessmen.

The use of trade acceptances, (which are the currency of 

international trade) by bankers and corporations in the United States 

prior to 1915 was practically unknown. The rise of the Federal Reserve 

System exactly parallels the increase in the use of acceptances in this 

country, nor is this a coincidence. The men who wanted the Federal 

Reserve System were the men who set up acceptance banks and 

profited by the use of acceptances.

As early as 1910, the National Monetary Commission began to issue 

pamphlets and other propaganda urging bankers and businessmen in 

this country to adopt trade acceptances in their transactions. For three

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years the Commission carried on this campaign, and the Aldrich Plan 

included a broad provision authorizing the introduction and use of 

bankers’ acceptances into the American system of commercial 

paper.

The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 as passed by Congress did not 

specifically authorize the use of acceptances, but the Federal Reserve 

Board in 1915 and 1916 defined "trade acceptance", further defined 

by Regulation A Series of 1920, and further defined by Series 1924. One 

of the first official acts of the Board of Governors in 1914 was to grant 

acceptances a preferentially low rate of discount at Federal Reserve 

Banks. Since acceptances were not being used in this country at that 

time, no explanation of business exigency could be advanced for this