<P> The Bank's role was properly one of restraint, so as to automatically suppress the volatility in financial markets--but not to prevent these boom - bust episodes . "If the (Second Bank of the United States) had been wisely managed from the beginning" writes historian George Dangerfield, "it could not have prevented the panic; it could only have modified its effects ." </P> <P> "The Panic of 1819...was compounded by many factors--overexpansion of credit during the post-war years, the collapse of the export market after the bumper crop of 1817 in Europe, low prices of imports from Europe which forced American manufacturers to close, financial instability resulting from both the excessive expansion of state banking after 1811 and the unsound policies of the Second Bank of the United States, and widespread unemployment ." </P> <P> President Monroe, interpreting the economic crisis in the narrow monetary terms then current, limited governmental action to economizing and ensuring fiscal stability . He acquiesced in suspending specie payments to bank depositors, setting a precedent for the Panics of 1837 & 1857 . Although Monroe agreed that improved transportation facilities were needed, he refused to approve appropriations for internal improvements without constitutional amendments . </P> <P> In 1821, Congress passed the Relief for Public Land Debtors Act . The bill allowed debtors who owed money on land purchased from the government to keep the part of land they had already paid for and relinquish the remaining amount . It further extended the schedule of payments by several years, with a discount for quick payment . With the exception of New England states, most of the country strongly supported the measure . Many state legislatures, particularly in rural western states, passed extra relief measures for debtors . </P>

What factors led to the panic of 1819 what government regulations might have prevented it