Easy Money: American Puritans and the Invention of Modern Currency

A sweeping history of the American invention of modern money.

Economists endlessly debate the nature of legal tender monetary systems--coins and bills issued by a government or other authority. Yet the origins of these currencies have received little attention.

Dror Goldberg tells the story of modern money in North America through the Massachusetts colony during the seventeenth century. As the young settlement transitioned to self-governance and its economy grew, the need to formalize a smooth exchange emerged. Printing local money followed.

Easy Money illustrates how colonists invented contemporary currency by shifting its foundation from intrinsically valuable goods--such as silver--to the taxation of the state. Goldberg traces how this structure grew into a worldwide system in which, monetarily, we are all Massachusetts. Weaving economics, law, and American history, Easy Money is a new touchstone in the story of monetary systems.

ISBN-13: 9780226825106

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Publication Date: 03-29-2023

Pages: 360

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

Series: Markets and Governments in Economic History

Dror Goldberg is a senior faculty member in the Department of Management and Economics at the Open University of Israel.

Read an Excerpt

"As most of the English nation gathered to celebrate Christmas Eve, the English subjects in Massachusetts were in no festive mood. For one thing, Puritans did not celebrate what they considered a pre-Christian holiday. More important, Massachusetts was broken—militarily, spiritually, morally, and financially. A large expedition sent to occupy French Quebec returned defeated. Previously confident of a divine victory against Catholics, the Puritan government declared in unprecedented despair: 'Our Father spit in our face.' The defeat implied there was no plunder—which was supposed to pay for the expedition. In an extremely cold winter, the smallpox-infested, mutinous soldiers and sailors demanded pay. A caretaker revolutionary government had nothing to offer them. It was the day before Christmas, and in order to pacify the troops, the chief Puritan colony gave birth to its own influential baby: modern currency."

Table of Contents

Part I. Introductions

Chapter 1. Introduction to the Book

Chapter 2. Money and Its Inventions: Theoretical Considerations

Chapter 3. England in the Late Sixteenth Century

Chapter 4. English Developments, 1584-1692
 

Part II. The Atlantic

Chapter 5. Before 1630: Harvesters of Money

Chapter 6. The Puritan Exodus, 1629-1640: General Features

Chapter 7. Massachusetts Takes the Monetary Lead, 1630-1640

Chapter 8. A New Hope, 1640-1660

Chapter 9. The Empire Strikes Back, 1660-1686

Chapter 10. Governments and Paper Money Projects, 1685-1689

Chapter 11. The Massachusetts Legislator: The Case of Elisha Hutchinson

Chapter 12. The Return of the General Court, 1689-1690

Summary of Part II
 

Part III. A Monetary Revolution

Chapter 13. The Legal Tender Law, 1690

Chapter 14. Aftermath, 1691-1692

Chapter 15. Back to England’s Financial Revolution, 1692-1700

Chapter 16. Analysis

Chapter 17. Conclusion

Notes

References

Index