People Lived during 1492-1877 on the Dollars

PART I: Introduction

The topic which I have chosen for this research paper is “People Lived during 1492-1877 on the Dollars.” There is a personal interest of mine behind choosing this topic. I have a personal interest in American history, especially in the use and influence of dollar on the economy.; this is the reason why I have chosen this topic.

PART II: Entry in a Subject Encyclopedia

During colonial times the official British coinage was in short supply and as a result the a variety of substitutes was used in Britain's American colonies, including wampum, in some of the northern colonies, and tobacco, or more conveniently, certificates for tobacco deposited in public warehouses, in Virginia. The colonists also used whatever foreign coins they could obtain. At various times in different colonies paper money was issued and disputes with the British government over this were one of the causes of the American Revolution. The rebels financed their war of independence largely by printing paper money notes that were called Continentals. By the end of the war, these had been rendered practically worthless by hyperinflation but financial prudence is a luxury in wartime. The notes had served their purpose and, with the help of their French allies, the Americans won the war. (Mintz 269)

As Spanish pesos or dollars had long been in wide circulation in North America, some of the paper money issued in some of the colonies before the war had been denominated in dollars. Other notes used British monetary units. During the war too, some Continentals were denominated in British units, others in dollars. In 1792 the newly independent United States chose the dollar, subdivided into 100 cents, as the unit of American currency in preference to the British pound.

PART III: Primary Sources

Foreign coins were supposed to lose their status as legal tender within 3 years of the US coins coming into circulation. A new mint was established in Philadelphia and started its operations in 1794. The mint was the first purpose-built structure authorized by the United States government. However, because of a shortage of both gold and silver, in 1797 the government extended legal tender status to Spanish dollars for an indefinite period. The discoveries in California, which sparked off the Gold Rush in 1848, led to a massive increase in the production of gold coins by the mint, and in 1857 the United States finally removed legal tender status from all foreign coins. By then, although as necessary to the retail trade as ever, developments in banking meant that coins were just the small change of commerce.

Money is often, mistakenly, thought to have been invented simply because of the inconvenience of barter. In fact the development of money was due to many causes and even barter itself often had important social functions in addition to its purely economic purposes.

PART IV: Secondary Sources

The potlatch ceremonies of Native Americans were a form of barter that had social and ceremonial functions that were at least as ...