Sovereign of the Market - The Money Question in Early America

What should serve as money, who should control its creation and circulation, and according to what rules? For more than two hundred years, the "money question" shaped American social thought, becoming a central subject of political debate and class conflict. Sovereign of the Market reveals how and why this happened.

Jeffrey Sklansky's wide-ranging study comprises three chronological parts devoted to major episodes in the career of the money question. First, the fight over the innovation of paper money in colonial New England. Second, the battle over the development of commercial banking in the new United States. And third, the struggle over the national banking system and the international gold standard in the late nineteenth century. Each section explores a broader problem of power that framed each conflict in successive phases of capitalist development: circulation, representation, and association. The three parts also encompass intellectual biographies of opposing reformers for each period, shedding new light on the connections between economic thought and other aspects of early American culture. The result is a fascinating, insightful, and deeply considered contribution to the history of capitalism.

About the author

Jeffrey Sklansky is associate professor of history at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of The Soul's Economy: Market Society and Selfhood in American Thought, 1820-1920.

Product details

• Authors: Jeffrey Sklansky, Sklansky Jeffrey
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.11.2017
• EAN: 9780226480336
• ISBN: 978-0-226-48033-6
• No. of pages: 336
• Dimensions: 159 mm x 235 mm x 25 mm
• Series: American Beginnings, 1500-1900; American Beginnings, 1500 - 1900; American Beginnings, 1500-1900
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Business > General, dictionaries; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, Political Ideologies, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Money & Monetary Policy, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History, HISTORY / United States / General, Economic history, Economic theory & philosophy, Later 19th century c 1850 to c 1899, United States of America, USA, History of the Americas, Political ideologies and movements, Economic theory and philosophy