How Amsterdam got fiat money

Stephen Quinn and William Roberds

No 2010-17, FRB Atlanta Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Abstract: We investigate a fiat money system introduced by the Bank of Amsterdam in 1683. Using data from the Amsterdam Municipal Archives, we partially reconstruct changes in the bank's balance sheet from 1666 through 1702. Our calculations show that the Bank of Amsterdam, founded in 1609, was engaged in two archetypal central bank activities?lending and open market operations?both before and after its adoption of a fiat standard. After 1683, the bank was able to conduct more regular and aggressive policy interventions, from a virtually nonexistent capital base. The bank's successful experimentation with a fiat standard foreshadows later developments in the history of central banking.

Date: 2010
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-his, nep-hpe and nep-mon
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Journal Article: How Amsterdam got fiat money (2014)
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