 This prompted Parliament to pass the Bank Restriction Act of 1797, which halted specie payments.The disruption of access to British gold and silver, coupled with the inability for financiers in the United States to successfully access Continental specie markets, unraveled the Atlantic credit web, hastening the collapse of Morris’s and other speculation schemes.By 1800, the crisis had resulted in the collapse of many prominent merchant firms in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and the imprisonment of many American debtors.