Here is one example from a "Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the Political History of the United States by the Best American and European Writers" published in 1881 (can be found at: http://www.econlib.org/library/YPDBooks/Lalor/llCy0.html )
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—The largest clearing house in the world is in the United States, and that country has the greatest number of clearing houses.
—New York now surpasses London, the oldest clearing centre. in the amount of its average daily clearings. In 1880 the total clearings of the London clearing house were, in dollars, $28,197,659,227; those of New York were $38,614,448,223.06. But the largest clearings in one day up to the end of 1880 were those of Nov. 17, at London, which amounted to $302,900,000. The transactions of the New York clearing house in 1880 were the largest ever made in any room on earth, and exceeded the sum of the payments ($18,334,854,202) and the receipts ($18,570,348,647) of the United States government since its foundation. All this immense business was done without the loss of a cent, and with no errors. The largest clearings made in New York, before 1872, were $35,541,088,264, in 1869, when one-third of them were due to gold speculation. London's largest clearings were $29,544,268,442 in the year 1873. The New York clearing house was founded Oct. 11, 1853, with 52 banks. This number was reduced after the panic of 1857, to 47; rose to 60 in 1873; in 1880 was 57; and in June, 1881, was 59, at which time the capital of the clearing house banks was $60,875,000. New York does 78 per cent, of all the clearings made in the United States.—"The American," Mr. Ellis said, in his paper on 'The Clearing House System,' read before the English Bankers' Institute, Feb. 16, 1881, "seems to be the character most suited to the adoption of centralizing and clearing principles."
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America came out of WW1 a creditor nation, again showing a tremendous capacity to raise money and New York thereafter surpassed London as the world investment capital.
boddi