The renewed interest in free banking has resulted in historical research of places and periods that experienced some form of laissez faire banking. The Experience of Free Banking contains the widest summary to date of this work, including assessments of free banking in Australia, the United States, Canada, China, Columbia, France, Scotland, and Switzerland. In almost every instance, these case studies invalidate the common assumption that competition in banking should be suppressed because it triggers rapid inflation and destabilizes the banking industry.