Editing Stephen Girard (section)

== Banking and Finance ==

Girard's establishment of Girard's Bank in 1812, following the expiration of the First Bank of the United States charter, created the financial institution that would serve both his interests and the nation's needs. His purchase of the former Bank of the United States building on Third Street provided the physical infrastructure for operations whose scale matched the departed national institution. His bank's subscription of the majority of the 1814 federal war loan, when the government struggled to finance the War of 1812, demonstrated both his resources and his patriotism.<ref name="adams"/>

His real estate holdings throughout Philadelphia and beyond created wealth that outlived his commercial ventures. His ownership of vast tracts of Pennsylvania coal lands, whose value he anticipated before their exploitation became general, demonstrated the foresight that his maritime trading had also displayed. His investments in internal improvements, including turnpikes and canals, reflected understanding that infrastructure would increase the value of the lands he owned.<ref name="mcmaster"/>

His business practices, which contemporaries sometimes considered ruthless, reflected the commercial culture of his era more than personal cruelty. His insistence on payment, his pursuit of debtors, and his unwillingness to accept losses that sentiment might excuse all reflected practices that other successful merchants employed. The fortune these practices accumulated would eventually serve purposes that transcended the individual who had gathered it.<ref name="adams"/>