Early American currency

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Obverse and reverse of a three pence note of paper currency issued by the Province of Pennsylvania and printed by Benjamin Franklin in 1764.

Early American currency went through several stages of development in colonial and post-Revolutionary history of the United States. Because few coins were minted in the thirteen colonies that became the United States in 1776, foreign coins like the Spanish dollar were widely circulated. Colonial governments sometimes issued paper money to facilitate economic activity. The British Parliament passed Currency Acts in 1751, 1764, and 1773 that regulated colonial paper money.

During the American Revolution, the colonies became independent states; freed from British monetary regulations, they issued paper money to pay for military expenses. The Continental Congress also issued paper money during the Revolution, known as Continental currency, to fund the war effort. Both state and Continental currency depreciated rapidly, becoming practically worthless by the end of the war. This depreciation was caused by the government having to over-print in order to meet the demands of war. It should not be seen as a negative reflection on the financial system.


Colonial currency

There were three general types of money in the colonies of British America: commodity money, specie (coins), and paper money.[1] Commodity money was used when cash (coins and paper money) was scarce. Commodities such as tobacco, beaver skins, and wampum served as money at various times and places.[2]

As in Great Britain, cash in the colonies was denominated in pounds, shillings, and pence.[2] The value varied from colony to colony; a Massachusetts pound, for example, was not equivalent to a Pennsylvania pound. All colonial pounds were of less value than the British pound sterling.[2] The coins in circulation in the colonies were most often of Spanish and Portuguese origin.[2] The prevalence of the Spanish dollar in the colonies led to the money of the United States being denominated in dollars rather than pounds.[2]

One by one, colonies began to issue their own paper money to serve as a convenient medium of exchange. In 1690, the Province of Massachusetts Bay created "the first authorized paper money issued by any government in the Western World."[3] This paper money was issued to pay for a military expedition during King William's War. Other colonies followed the example of Massachusetts Bay by issuing their own paper currency in subsequent military conflicts.[3]

The paper bills issued by the colonies were known as "bills of credit." Bills of credit were usually fiat money: they could not be exchanged for a fixed amount of gold or silver coins upon demand.[2][4] Bills of credit were usually issued by colonial governments to pay debts. The governments would then retire the currency by accepting the bills for payment of taxes. When colonial governments issued too many bills of credit or failed to tax them out of circulation, inflation resulted. This happened especially in New England and the southern colonies, which, unlike the Middle Colonies, were frequently at war.[4]

This depreciation of colonial currency was harmful to creditors in Great Britain when colonists paid their debts with money that had lost value. In 1776, British (Scot) economist Adam Smith criticized colonial bills of credit in his most famous work, The Wealth of Nations. The inflationary nature of the currency, wrote Smith, was a "violent injustice" to the creditor; "a scheme of fraudulent debtors to cheat their creditors" (Book II, Chapter II). As a result, the British Parliament passed several Currency Acts to regulate the paper money issued by the colonies. The Currency Act of 1751 restricted the emission of paper money in New England. It allowed the existing bills to be used as legal tender for public debts (i.e. paying taxes), but disallowed their use for private debts (e.g. for paying merchants).[5]

Another Currency Act, in 1764, extended the restrictions to the colonies south of New England. Unlike the earlier act, this act did not prohibit the colonies in question from issuing paper money but it did forbade them to designate their currency as legal tender for public or private debts. That prohibition created tension between the colonies and the mother country and has sometimes been seen as a contributing factor in the coming of the American Revolution. After much lobbying, Parliament amended the act in 1773, permitting the colonies to issue paper currency as legal tender for public debts.[6] Shortly thereafter, some colonies once again began issuing paper money. When the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, all of the rebel colonies, soon to be independent states, issued paper money to pay for military expenses.

Thirteen colony set of United States Colonial currency

The Thirteen Colony set of colonial currency below is from the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution. Examples were selected based on the notability of the signers, followed by issue date and condition. The initial selection criteria for notability was drawn from a list[7] of currency signers who were also known to have signed the United States Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, the United States Constitution, or attended the Stamp Act Congress.[nb 1]

Complete 13-colony set of United States Colonial currency[8][nb 2]
Colony Value Date Issue First[nb 3] Note (Obv) Note (Rev) Signatures
Connecticut 40s 1775-01-02 15,000£[9] 1709[10] Connecticut colonial currency, 40 shillings, 1775 (obverse) Connecticut colonial currency, 40 shillings, 1775 (reverse) Elisha Williams,
Thomas Seymour,
Benjamin Payne[nb 4]
Delaware 4s 1776-01-01 30,000£[12] 1723[13] Delaware colonial currency, 4 shillings, 1776 (obverse) Delaware colonial currency, 4 shillings, 1776 (reverse) John McKinly,
Thomas Collins,
Boaz Manlove
Georgia $40 1778-05-04 150,000£[nb 5] 1735[15] Georgia colonial currency, 40 dollars, 1778 (obverse) Georgia colonial currency, 40 dollars, 1778 (reverse) Charles Kent,
William Few,
Thomas Netherclift,
William O’Bryen,[nb 6]
Nehemiah Wade
Maryland $1 1770-03-01 $318,000[18] 1733[19] Maryland colonial currency, 1 dollar, 1770 (obverse) Maryland colonial currency, 1 dollar, 1770 (reverse) John Clapham,
Robert Couden[nb 7]
Massachusetts 2s 1741-05-01 50,000£[21] 1690[22] Massachusetts colonial currency, 2 shilling, 1741 (obverse) Massachusetts colonial currency, 2 shilling, 1741 (reverse) Robert Choate,
Jonathan Hale,
John Brown,
Edward Eveleth
New Hampshire $1 1780-04-29 $145,000[23] 1709[10] New Hampshire colonial currency, 1 dollar, 1780 (obverse) New Hampshire colonial currency, 1 dollar, 1780 (reverse) James McClure,
Ephraim Robinson,
Joseph Pearson,[nb 8]
John Taylor Gilman (rev)
New Jersey 12s 1776-03-25 100,000£[25] 1709[26] New Jersey colonial currency, 12 shilling, 1776 (obverse) New Jersey colonial currency, 12 shilling, 1776 (reverse) Robert Smith,
John Hart,
John Stevens, Jr.
New York 2s 1775-08-02 2,500£[27] 1709[28] New York colonial currency, 2 shilling, 1775 (obverse) New York colonial currency, 2 shilling, 1775 (reverse) John H. Cruger,
William Waddell[nb 9]
North Carolina £3 1729-11-27 40,000£[30] 1712[31] North Carolina colonial currency, 3 pounds sterling, 1729 (obverse) North Carolina colonial currency, 3 pounds sterling, 1729 (reverse) William Downing,[nb 10]
John Lovick,[nb 11]
Edward Moseley,
Cullen Pollock,[nb 12]
Thomas Swann[nb 13]
Pennsylvania 20s 1771-03-20 15,000£[35] 1723[36] Pennsylvania colonial currency, 20 shilling, 1771 (obverse) Pennsylvania colonial currency, 20 shilling, 1771 (reverse) Francis Hopkinson,
Robert Strettell Jones,
William Fisher[nb 14]
Rhode Island $1 1780-07-02 39,000£[38] 1710[39] Rhode Island colonial currency, 1 dollar, 1780 (obverse) Rhode Island colonial currency, 1 dollar, 1780 (reverse) Caleb Harris,
Metcalf Bowler,[nb 15]
Jonathan Arnold
South Carolina $60 1779-02-08 $1,000,000[41] 1703[42] South Carolina colonial currency, 60 dollars, 1779 (obverse) South Carolina colonial currency, 60 dollars, 1779 (reverse) John Scott,
John Smyth,
Plowden Weston[nb 16]
Virginia £3 1773-03-04 36,384£[44] 1755[45] Virginia colonial currency, 3 pounds sterling, 1773 (obverse) Virginia colonial currency, 3 pounds sterling, 1773 (reverse) Peyton Randolph,
John Blair, Jr.,
Robert Carter Nicholas, Sr.(rev)


Continental currency

Continental One Third Dollar Note (obverse)
A fifty-five dollar Continental issued in 1779.

After the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, the Continental Congress began issuing paper money known as Continental currency, or Continentals. Continental currency was denominated in dollars from 1/6 of a dollar to $80, including many odd denominations in between. During the Revolution, Congress issued $241,552,780 in Continental currency.[46]

Continental currency depreciated badly during the war, giving rise to the famous phrase "not worth a continental".[47] A primary problem was that monetary policy was not coordinated between Congress and the states, which continued to issue bills of credit.[48] "Some think that the rebel bills depreciated because people lost confidence in them or because they were not backed by tangible assets," writes financial historian Robert E. Wright. "Not so. There were simply too many of them."[49] Congress and the states lacked the will or the means to retire the bills from circulation through taxation or the sale of bonds.[50]

Another problem was that the British successfully waged economic warfare by counterfeiting Continentals on a large scale. Benjamin Franklin later wrote:

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The artists they employed performed so well that immense quantities of these counterfeits which issued from the British government in New York, were circulated among the inhabitants of all the states, before the fraud was detected. This operated significantly in depreciating the whole mass.[51]

By the end of 1778, Continentals retained from 1/5 to 1/7 of their face value. By 1780, the bills were worth 1/40th of face value. Congress attempted to reform the currency by removing the old bills from circulation and issuing new ones, without success. By May 1781, Continentals had become so worthless that they ceased to circulate as money. Franklin noted that the depreciation of the currency had, in effect, acted as a tax to pay for the war.[52]

For this reason, some Quakers, whose pacifism did not permit them to pay war taxes, also refused to use Continentals, and at least one Yearly Meeting formally forbade its members to use the notes.[53] In the 1790s, after the ratification of the United States Constitution, Continentals could be exchanged for treasury bonds at 1% of face value.[54]

After the collapse of Continental currency, Congress appointed Robert Morris to be Superintendent of Finance of the United States. Morris advocated the creation of the first financial institution chartered by the United States, the Bank of North America, in 1782. The bank was funded in part by specie loaned to the United States by France. Morris helped finance the final stages of the war by issuing notes in his name, backed by his own money. The Bank of North America also issued notes convertible into specie.[55] Morris also presided over the creation of the first Mint operated by the U.S. Government, which struck the first coins of the United States, the Nova Constellatio patterns of 1783.[56]

The painful experience of the runaway inflation and collapse of the Continental dollar prompted the delegates to the Constitutional Convention to include the gold and silver clause into the United States Constitution so that the individual states could not issue bills of credit or "make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts."[57] This restriction of bills of credit was extended to the Federal government, as the power to "emit bills" from the Articles of Confederation was abolished, leaving Congress with the power "to borrow money on credit.".[58][59]


See also

References

Footnotes

  1. Visually attractive and early examples were di,gitized and additional signer research was conducted later.
  2. Obverse and reverse images have been prepared separately for table preparation purposes. Some of the notes obverse/reverse are not on the same orientation which would make single images containing both distracting.
  3. Date of the first issue of paper currency for each of the Colonies.
  4. Williams, Seymour, and Payne (among others) were appointed to a committee to print and sign currency for the Colony of Connecticut in the amount of 50,000 pounds.[11]
  5. Newman (2008) indicates the total issue in Pound sterling despite the currency issue in dollars.[14]
  6. O’Bryen, Treasurer of Georgia[16] was elected to the Continental Congress but did not attend.[17]
  7. Couden served as Mayor of Annapolis from 1785–86 and 1790–91.[20]
  8. Act authorizing Ephraim Robinson and Joseph Pearson to countersign New Hampshire currency.[24]
  9. Waddell was a New York City Alderman (1773–77) with the authority to sign currency issued to fund the “water works” under construction near Broadway and Chambers streets.[29]
  10. Downing served as Speaker of the House of Burgesses from 1735 to 1739.[32]
  11. Lovick was a member of the House of Burgesses.[33]
  12. Pollock was a member of the House of Burgesses.[34]
  13. Swann served as Speaker of the House of Burgesses in 1729.[32]
  14. Hopkinson, Jones, and Fisher authorized to sign Pennsylvania currency.[37]
  15. Act passed June 1780 authorizing Harris and Bowler to sign Rhode Island currency.[40]
  16. Scott, Smyth, and Weston (among others) were appointed commissioners with the authority to print and sign one million dollars of South Carolina currency.[43]


These references have been removed from EH.Net ---

  1. Flynn, "Credit in the Colonial American Economy".
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Michener, "Money in the American Colonies".
  3. 3.0 3.1 Newman, 1990, p. 11.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Wright, p. 45.
  5. Allen, pp. 96–98.
  6. Allen, p. 98.
  7. Newman, 2008, pp. 24-25.
  8. Friedberg & Friedberg, pp. 12–29.
  9. Newman, 2008, p. 110.
  10. 10.0 10.1 Newman, 2008, p. 89.
  11. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. Newman, 2008, p. 125.
  13. Newman, 2008, p. 119.
  14. Newman, 2008, p. 151.
  15. Newman, 2008, p. 130.
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  18. Newman, 2008, p. 172.
  19. Newman, 2008, p. 167.
  20. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. Newman, 2008, p. 200.
  22. Newman, 2008, p. 183.
  23. Newman, 2008, p. 223.
  24. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. Newman, 2008, p. 260.
  26. Newman, 2008, p. 247.
  27. Newman, 2008, p. 285.
  28. Newman, 2008, p. 269.
  29. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. Newman, 2008, p. 315.
  31. Newman, 2008, p. 313.
  32. 32.0 32.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  35. Newman, 2008, p. 346.
  36. Newman, 2008, p. 331.
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  38. Newman, 2008, p. 399.
  39. Newman, 2008, p. 371.
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  41. Newman, 2008, p. 426.
  42. Newman, 2008, p. 405.
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  44. Newman, 2008, p. 443.
  45. Newman, 2008, p. 437.
  46. Newman, 1990, p. 16.
  47. Newman, 1990, p. 17.
  48. Wright, p. 50.
  49. Wright, p. 49.
  50. Wright, 52
  51. Kenneth Scot, Counterfeiting in Colonial America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), 259–60.
  52. Wright, p. 49; Newman, 1990, 17.
  53. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  54. Newman, 1990, p. 17; Wright, p. 49.
  55. Wright, p. 62.
  56. Morris Papers, Volume 7, pp 761-765
  57. U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 10.
  58. U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 8.
  59. Rozeff, p 18. https://mises.org/books/rozeff_us_constitution_and_money.pdf

Flynn, David. "Credit in the Colonial American Economy". EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples. March 16, 2008. Michener, Ron. "Money in the American Colonies". EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples. June 8, 2003.

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Brock, Leslie V. The currency of the American colonies, 1700–1764: a study in colonial finance and imperial relations. Dissertations in American economic history. New York: Arno Press, 1975. ISBN 0-405-07257-0.
  • Ernst, Joseph Albert. Money and politics in America, 1755–1775: a study in the Currency act of 1764 and the political economy of revolution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1973. ISBN 0-8078-1217-X.

External links

fr:Effet colonial