Fiscal discriminations in three wars

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hall, George J.; Sargent, Thomas J.
• 署名单位: Brandeis University; New York University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF MONETARY ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3932
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2013.09.002
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 148-166
• 关键词: Repudiation; reputation; DISCRIMINATION; Legal tender; Greenbacks; Alexander Hamilton; Albert Gallatin; Ulysses S. Grant

摘要

In 1790, a U.S. paper dollar was widely held in disrepute (something shoddy was not 'worth a Continental'). By 1879, a U.S. paper dollar had become 'as good as gold'. These outcomes emerged from how the U.S. federal government financed three wars: the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. In the beginning, the U.S. government discriminated greatly in the returns it paid to different classes of creditors; but that pattern of discrimination diminished over time in ways that eventually rehabilitated the reputation of federal paper money as a store of value. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.