John Sherman of Ohio: Finance Minister of the American Civil War Era

Sofia Valeonti () and Ariel Ron ()
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Sofia Valeonti: PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, AUP - The American University of Paris
Ariel Ron: SMU - Southern Methodist University [Dallas, TX, USA]

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Abstract: During the US Reconstruction era (1865-1879), that followed the Civil War, the US chose to follow a policy mix of protectionism and resumption of gold payments at pre-war parity. John Sherman, an Ohioan senator and later Treasury Secretary, steered the country towards this policy combination. The combination of gold payments and protectionism may seem as an incoherent policy, but we argue that Sherman used this policy mix as a tool to promote his vision of US economic development. A vision that included US industrialization, as well as the development of capital-intensive agriculture. Given the economic and political constraints that he faced, Sherman had to rely on this policy combination to promote his vision of development.

Keywords: development; protectionism; financial integration; trilemma; resumption of specie payments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-03-20
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