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Panic and Promise

This chapter addresses the Panic of 1837. At the time of the new Bowery Theatre's opening in 1837, the national economy was overheating and buffeted by a combination of President Andrew Jackson's war on the Second Bank of the United States, rabid speculation, an unfettered economic boom, and wildly expanding trade. Then, while Congress was on recess, Jackson issued his Specie Circular, directing government land offices to only accept silver or gold in the hope of stopping the spread of paper money. This helped send the economy into a tailspin. Credit contracted, and British merchants cut back on cotton purchases. The shock from the resulting collapse of the cotton market rippled through New York's economy, and caused a long term and devastating depression, which only started to lift in the early 1840s as British credit was loosened, and European nations sought American crops following their local agricultural failures. Yet throughout, one thing that constantly replenished the city's economy was the arrival of immigrants like the merchant Alexander Stewart. Meanwhile, New York's port and rivers beckoned trade from throughout the world, and the city’s became the center of ship building.