IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehs/wpaper/7011.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why did Massachusetts Invent Modern Currency?

Author

Listed:
  • Dror Goldberg

    (Texas A&M University)

Abstract

"In 1690 Massachusetts issued what seemed to be a private-type credit instrument. In fact it was the first inconvertible, legal tender paper money. The unique political considerations of that inter-charter period did not allow the provisional government to support the money in standard ways, such as backing by land, an explicit full legal tender status, or general forced use of the money. The legislature relied instead on the history of local monetary law as an indicator that these features were not necessary, and it also used a seemingly irrelevant commodity money act as a partial substitute. That act – so far ignored by historians – explains precisely the market discount on the notes."

Suggested Citation

  • Dror Goldberg, 2007. "Why did Massachusetts Invent Modern Currency?," Working Papers 7011, Economic History Society.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehs:wpaper:7011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ehs.org.uk/dotAsset/c2e0198a-fcda-4f1d-9543-e2c06acc8e24.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steele, Ian K., 1986. "The English Atlantic, 1675-1740: An Exploration of Communication and Community," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195039689.
    2. Sylla, Richard, 1982. "Monetary Innovation in America," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(1), pages 21-30, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bordo, Michael D., 1986. "Explorations in monetary history: A survey of the literature," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 339-415, October.
    2. Christopher Bailey & Tarique Hossain & Gary Pecquet, 2018. "Private banks in early Michigan, 1837–1884," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 12(1), pages 153-180, January.
    3. Pistor Katharina, 2021. "Theorizing Beyond “The Code of Capital”: A Reply," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 65-80, March.
    4. Klas Rönnbäck, 2016. "Transaction costs of early modern multinational enterprise: measuring the transatlantic information lag of the British Royal African Company and its successor, 1680–1818," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(8), pages 1147-1163, November.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N00 - Economic History - - General - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehs:wpaper:7011. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chair Public Engagement Committe (currently David Higgins - Newcastle) (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ehsukea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.