This research examines the trajectory of urbanization under capitalism and the evolutionary development of the financial system as a joint historical process. While design schools continue to propagate the famous Bauhaus adage “form follows function”, the particular historical reality of the American metropolis is that “form follows finance”. Focusing on the spatial consequences of the U.S. financial system since the 1830s, we argue that a general theory of urban rise and decline must establish explicit linkages between money, credit and banking and urban spatial structure. In particular, this research develops the case that money and finance are non-neutral with regard to space, principally because the institutional arrangements of finance matter for how the built environment evolves.