This is Part 1 of a two-part series on the US's second attempt at installing a central bank, setting the scene for the Panic of 1819, a serious depression for which the Second BUS took most of the blame. This was somewhat unfair, but politically toxic. This was to become apparent some years later when the fledgeling central bank's management miscalculated and took a step that was to prove much like handing hostile interests a loaded gun, placing the barrel in its own mouth and inviting them to press the trigger. In this episode I set the scene, going through its birth after the War of 1812, a monster volcanic explosion, what lay behind the speculative boom that led to the Panic of 1819 and the bust -- a depression that lasted until 1821 -- that followed.