A historic look at money, coinage, and the gold standard.
Learn how 19th-century debates shaped American finance.
This edition surveys key ideas about free coinage, the meaning of value in political economy, and the question of whether gold truly remains constant in worth. It frames how coinage policies, legal tender, and monetary law influenced the economy and daily life in the 1890s.
- Understand what free coinage might mean in practice and how it differs from gratuitous coinage.
- See how the dollar functions as a unit of account and why some view it as an impossible “unit of value.”
- Learn the arguments that favored a gold standard and the concerns raised about its effects on prices, debt, and industry.
- Consider how laws and government action relate to money, contracts, and the tension between policy and markets.
Ideal for readers of economic history and monetary policy.