Is Paper Money Just Paper Money? Experimentation and Variation in the Paper Monies Issued by the American Colonies from 1690 to 1775

Farley Grubb

A chapter in Research in Economic History, 2016, vol. 32, pp 147-224 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: The British North American colonies were the first western economies to rely on legislature-issued paper monies as an important internal media of exchange. This system arose piecemeal. In the absence of banks and treasuries that exchanged paper monies at face value for specie monies on demand, colonial governments experimented with other ways to anchor their paper monies to real values in the economy. These mechanisms included tax-redemption, land-backed loans, sinking funds, interest-bearing notes, and legal tender laws. I assess and explain the structure and performance of these mechanisms. This was monetary experimentation on a grand scale.

Keywords: Bills of credit; land banks; legal tender; present value; zero-coupon bonds; E42; E50; F31; G10; H60; K29; N11; N21; N41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Is Paper Money Just Paper Money? Experimentation and Variation in the Paper Monies Issued by the American Colonies from 1690 to 1775 (2015)
Working Paper: Is Paper Money Just Paper Money? Experimentation and Variation in the Paper Monies Issued by the American Colonies from 1690 to 1775 (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:rehizz:s0363-326820160000032003

DOI: 10.1108/S0363-326820160000032003

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