BOOK COVER -- HALF-TITLE -- TITLE -- COPYRIGHT -- CONTENTS -- LIST OF TABLES -- FOREWORD -- 1 INTRODUCTION -- THE PLAN OF THE BOOK -- Banks and bank notes -- Nineteenth century developments -- Silver, gold, exchange rates and monetary unions -- 2 SOME CONCEPTS OF MONEY -- INTRODUCTION -- Seigniorage -- Debasement -- Tale or Specie? -- Changes in the value of metal -- Short-weighting, clipping and counterfeiting -- Fair wear and tear and the breakdown of the coinage -- COINAGE SYSTEMS WITH TWO OR THREE METALS -- Bimetallism -- Arbitrage and bimetallism -- The silver standard -- Gresham's Law -- Money of account and ghost money -- Small change and the petty coins -- 3 MONEY IN EUROPE TO 1250 -- THE CAROLINGIAN REFORM -- ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH COINAGE -- The short cross coinage (1180-1247) -- The voided long cross Coinage (1247-79) -- The long cross coinage (1279-1544) -- Scotland -- MONEY IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE -- 4 MONEY IN THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION -- INTRODUCTION -- Italy -- GOLD -- France -- England -- Scotland -- APPENDIX -- 5 THE GREAT DEBASEMENT OF HENRY VIII'S REIGN -- THE EARLY YEARS -- THE GREAT DEBASEMENT -- Debasement in Ireland-A trial run? -- The stages of the Debasement -- ANALYSIS OF THE GREAT DEBASEMENT -- Gold -- Prices -- THE RESTORATION OF THE COINAGE -- PRIVATE ENTERPRISE -- LONGER PERIOD PRICE TRENDS -- APPENDIX -- 6 THE RECOINAGE OF 1696-LOCKE, LOWNDES AND NEWTON -- BACKGROUND -- THE STATE OF THE COINAGE -- Fleetwood's attack on clipping -- The Lowndes proposals -- Locke's views -- The issues -- Political action -- 7 FORMALISING THE UNITED KINGDOM GOLD STANDARD -- TOWARDS A GOLD STANDARD -- THE OPERATION OF THE GOLD STANDARD -- 8 BIMETALLISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY -- THE ISSUE STATED -- BIMETALLISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY -- France -- The period of silver shortage (1848-70).

9 MONETARY UNION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY-THE COLLAPSE OF BIMETALLISM IN EUROPE -- EARLY MONETARY UNIONS -- Monetary union in Switzerland -- The over-valuation of silver -- The conference of 1865 -- Latin monetary union: Stage 1 -- THE CONFERENCE OF 1867 -- Was the time ripe for British membership? -- The UK Royal Commission -- WAS BIMETALLISM AN ISSUE? -- The fall of bimetallism -- End of the Latin Monetary Union -- 10 BIMETALLISM-THE UNITED STATES AND INDIA -- THE UNITED STATES-INTRODUCTION -- Early history -- The Act of 1873 -- Recession after 1873 -- The Bland-Allison Act -- Silver and gold controversy in the United States -- The period of falling prices -- INDIA -- 11 SUPPORTERS AND OPPONENTS OF BIMETALLISM -- THE NINETEENTH CENTURY -- 12 THE EARLIER HISTORY OF MONEY -- ANCIENT GREECE -- ROME -- BYZANTIUM -- 13 INTRODUCTION -- MONEY THEORY -- Usury -- The Christian view on usury -- The loopholes -- Islam -- 14 CREDIT AND THE TRADE FAIRS -- INTRODUCTION -- THE HISTORY AND PURPOSE OF THE TRADE FAIRS -- The role of the fairs in monetary history -- 15 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BANKING AND FINANCE -- INTRODUCTION -- THE BANK OF AMSTERDAM -- BANKING IN ENGLAND -- Tax policy -- The Commonwealth -- 'The Stop of the Exchequer' -- Foundation of the Bank of England -- Development of stock markets -- After the South Sea Bubble -- The crisis of 1763 -- The crisis of 1772 -- 16 THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE: 1720 -- THE EARLY HISTORY -- The fun begins -- The aftermath -- 17 DEPOSIT BANKING IN ENGLAND -- BANKING AFTER THE NAPOLEONIC WARS -- WHAT IS MEANT BY 'MONEY'? -- The main issues -- The effects of resumption -- The company promotion boom -- The crisis of 1825 -- THE BANK CHARTER ACT OF 1833 -- Evidence to the committee -- The 1833 Committee Report -- Defects of the Currency School -- 18 MONEY AND BANKING IN THE UNITED STATES -- INTRODUCTION -- BANKING.

The Bank of North America -- FROM 1787 TO THE WAR OF 1812 -- Alexander Hamilton and the First Bank of the United States -- THE WAR OF 1812 AND SUSPENSION -- THE SECOND BANK OF THE UNITED STATES -- 'The power to destroy' -- The panic of 1819 -- Nicholas Biddle, Andrew Jackson and the Bank Wars -- Political background -- 'The Removal of the Deposites' -- 19 AFTER THE BANK WARS: THE UK/US CRISES OF 1836 TO 1839 -- THE UNITED STATES AFTER THE BANK WARS -- The distribution of the surplus -- The Specie Circular -- The UK political background to the crisis -- THE CRISIS -- The Independent Treasury -- 20 PRIVATE BANKING IN THE EARLY UNITED STATES -- PRIVATE BANKING BEFORE 1837 -- William Gouge and other writers -- Jackson's second term -- New York safety fund system -- After the crash of 1837 -- Free banking -- 21 THE BANK CHARTER ACT OF 1844 AND THE CRISIS OF 1847 -- THE BANK CHARTER -- THE CRISIS OF 1847 -- Background to the Crisis -- The Crisis at its height -- 22 INTRODUCTION-LAND BANKS -- INTRODUCTION -- LAND BANKS -- John Law and the shortage of money -- Money and Trade Considered -- 23 JOHN LAW, RICHARD CANTILLON, AND THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME -- INTRODUCTION -- The early history of John Law -- Adventures in Europe -- The Banque Génerále -- The Mississippi scheme -- The Banque Royale -- Richard Cantillon -- 24 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND THE BIRTH OF THE DOLLAR -- INTRODUCTION -- WORLD MONEY BEFORE 1776 -- Money in the American Colonies before 1776 -- Background to the revolution -- The Revolution begins -- THE BIRTH OF THE DOLLAR-A CURRENCY FOR THE NEW NATION -- 25 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE ASSIGNATS -- MONEY IN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY FRANCE -- THE FRENCH REVOLUTION -- The Assignats -- The government's gain from its money operations -- The final failures of the Assignats, and their successors, the Mandats -- The aftermath -- A retrospect: money confusion.

APPENDIX -- 26 THE SUSPENSION OF PAYMENTS, 1797 TO 1821 -- THE STATE OF THE BRITISH COINAGE IN 1797 -- WAR WITH FRANCE -- The Suspension of Payments -- The early years of suspension -- The Irish pound and the 1804 Report -- The 1810 Royal Commission -- The Bullion Report -- Towards resumption -- 27 THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR AND THE GREENBACKS -- BACKGROUND TO THE WAR AND THE FINANCING OF IT -- The Greenbacks -- Inflation -- Were the Greenbacks cheap finance? -- Key figures on the funding of the war -- A note on the real interest rate -- 28 SOME OTHER CASES OF INCONVERTIBLE PAPER MONEY -- INTRODUCTION -- China -- Paper money in Imperial Russia -- Sweden -- Italy -- Austria -- Latin America -- Argentina -- Brazil -- Chile -- 29 POSTSCRIPT-THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY -- INTRODUCTION -- The United States, gold and the Federal Reserve -- The United Kingdom and the Great War -- AFTER THE WAR: THE RETURN TO GOLD -- The hyper-inflations of the 1920s -- Russia -- The Crash of 1929 and the collapse of monetary order -- The Sterling Area -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES -- INDEX.