Promise to Pay - The Politics and Power of Money in Early America

An incisive account of the crucial role money played in the formation and development of British North America.Promise to Pay follows America's first paper money-the "bills of credit" of British North America-from its seventeenth-century origins as a means of war finance to its pivotal role in catalyzing the American Revolution. Katie A. Moore combs through treasury records, account books, and the bills themselves to tell a new story of money's origins that challenges economic orthodoxy and mainstream histories. Promise to Pay shows how colonial governments imposed paper bills on settler communities through existing labor and kinship relations, their value secured by thousands of individual claims on the public purse-debts-and the state's promise to take them back as payment for taxes owed. Born into a world of hierarchy and deference, early American money eroded old social ties and created new asymmetries of power, functioning simultaneously as a ticket to the world of goods, a lifeline for those on the margins, and a tool of imperial domination.Grounded in sustained engagement with scholarship from multiple disciplines, Promise to Pay breathes new life into old debates and offers an incisive account of the centrality of money in the politics and conflicts of empire, community, and everyday life.

Product details

• Authors: Katie A. Moore
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.11.2024
• EAN: 9780226835839
• ISBN: 978-0-226-83583-9
• No. of pages: 320
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 17 mm
• Series: American Beginnings, 1500-1900
• Subjects: Education and learning > Teaching preparation > Vocational needs; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, HISTORY / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies), BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History, Economic history, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, 17th century, c 1600 to c 1699, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, History of the Americas, C 1600 To C 1700, C 1700 To C 1800