The Balance. No. 1-3. 22 Feb.-11 May 1841
Title | The Balance. No. 1-3. 22 Feb.-11 May 1841 PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | |
Pages | 60 |
Release | 1841 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
The Balance. No. 1-3. 22 Feb.-11 May 1841
Title | The Balance. No. 1-3. 22 Feb.-11 May 1841 PDF eBook |
Author | BALANCE. |
Publisher | |
Pages | |
Release | 1841 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons
Title | Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons PDF eBook |
Author | Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons |
Publisher | |
Pages | 840 |
Release | 1874 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
Parliamentary Papers
Title | Parliamentary Papers PDF eBook |
Author | Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons |
Publisher | |
Pages | 494 |
Release | 1856 |
Genre | Bills, Legislative |
ISBN |
The British Library General Catalogue of Printed Books to 1975
Title | The British Library General Catalogue of Printed Books to 1975 PDF eBook |
Author | British Library |
Publisher | |
Pages | 536 |
Release | 1979 |
Genre | Reference |
ISBN |
General Catalogue of Printed Books
Title | General Catalogue of Printed Books PDF eBook |
Author | British Museum. Department of Printed Books |
Publisher | |
Pages | 592 |
Release | 1971 |
Genre | English imprints |
ISBN |
A Nation of Counterfeiters
Title | A Nation of Counterfeiters PDF eBook |
Author | Stephen Mihm |
Publisher | Harvard University Press |
Pages | 484 |
Release | 2007-09-15 |
Genre | Antiques & Collectibles |
ISBN | 9780674026575 |
Listen to a short interview with Stephen MihmHost: Chris Gondek | Producer: Heron & Crane Few of us question the slips of green paper that come and go in our purses, pockets, and wallets. Yet confidence in the money supply is a recent phenomenon: prior to the Civil War, the United States did not have a single, national currency. Instead, countless banks issued paper money in a bewildering variety of denominations and designs--more than ten thousand different kinds by 1860. Counterfeiters flourished amid this anarchy, putting vast quantities of bogus bills into circulation. Their success, Stephen Mihm reveals, is more than an entertaining tale of criminal enterprise: it is the story of the rise of a country defined by a freewheeling brand of capitalism over which the federal government exercised little control. It was an era when responsibility for the country's currency remained in the hands of capitalists for whom "making money" was as much a literal as a figurative undertaking. Mihm's witty tale brims with colorful characters: shady bankers, corrupt cops, charismatic criminals, and brilliant engravers. Based on prodigious research, it ranges far and wide, from New York City's criminal underworld to the gold fields of California and the battlefields of the Civil War. We learn how the federal government issued greenbacks for the first time and began dismantling the older monetary system and the counterfeit economy it sustained. A Nation of Counterfeiters is a trailblazing work of history, one that casts the country's capitalist roots in a startling new light. Readers will recognize the same get-rich-quick spirit that lives on in the speculative bubbles and confidence games of the twenty-first century.