BARRY EICHENGREEN: George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, Berkeley.

What made for the United States' own "Hamiltonian moment" was its own resources. Not only did the federal government assume the Revolutionary War debts of the now thirteen states, but the Congress agreed to create the U.S. Customs Service to collect import duties. The federal government thus had a dedicated source of funds that would expand with the economy and ensure that the government's debt-servicing capacity expanded along with it. This relieved the federal government of the need to go hat in hand to the states each time it had occasion to issue debt.

"Own resources" is of course where Europe's negotiations...