Banco Nacional de San Carlos (1782)

Spain's first national bank, erected by royal cédula on 2 June 1782 to rescue the vales reales — a state paper that had fallen more than twenty-two per cent against coin — and to feed and clothe the army and navy of Spain and the Indies. It worked: the paper recovered to a premium. It also depended on silver exports and share dealing, was attacked in print by Mirabeau, and ended in 1829, its forty million reales becoming the capital of the bank that became the Bank of Spain.