Pieter Stadnitski Sharpens the Axe: A Revolutionary Research Report on American Sovereign Finance, 1787

Peter Theodore Veru

A chapter in Research in Economic History, 2021, vol. 37, pp 169-199 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: One of the most important, least-known documents of the American Revolution was a 25-page pamphlet published in Amsterdam early in 1787:An Explanatory Message Concerning the Fundsby Pieter Stadnitski.1Within a year of its publication Peter Stadnitski'sMessagequite literally revolutionized American sovereign finance. My paper will summarize in detail the report's content and analyze its arguments in light of Dutch archival materials including deeds, newspaper reports, and letters, as well as congressional records from American sources. It will describe what Dutch investors knew (and did not know) of the state of American public finance and American political landscape, and the Dutch financial community's view of the American future. Its essential argument is that thanks initially to Stadnitski's persuasive case and ultimately to the success of the trusts he pioneered, Dutch investment specialists came to see the American republic as a safe haven at a time that Dutch Republic's own future seemed increasingly perilous. If their dream of achieving a new Golden Age through trade and investment with the new nation ultimately proved illusory, the effects of Dutch capital in creating financial stability for the United States government and igniting the first peacetime economic expansion in American history were revolutionary indeed.

Keywords: Transatlantic finance; capital markets; currency; United States; United Provinces; speculation; B12; H27 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... 3-326820210000037005
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:rehizz:s0363-326820210000037005

DOI: 10.1108/S0363-326820210000037005

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Research in Economic History from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().