The Currency of Empire: Money and Power in Seventeenth-Century English America

Jonathan Barth

Open Access Published by Cornell University Press 2022

The Currency of Empire

Money and Power in Seventeenth-Century English America

Jonathan Barth
Funded by: Arizona State & George Mason

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501755781

Overview
Contents

About this book

In The Currency of Empire, Jonathan Barth explores the intersection of money and power in the early years of North American history, and he shows how the control of money informed English imperial action overseas.

The export-oriented mercantile economy promoted by the English Crown, Barth argues, directed the plan for colonization, the regulation of colonial commerce, and the politics of empire. The imperial project required an orderly flow of gold and silver, and thus England's colonial regime required stringent monetary regulation. As Barth shows, money was also a flash point for resistance; many colonists acutely resented their subordinate economic station, desiring for their local economies a robust, secure, and uniform money supply. This placed them immediately at odds with the mercantilist laws of the empire and precipitated an imperial crisis in the 1670s, a full century before the Declaration of Independence.

The Currency of Empire examines what were a series of explosive political conflicts in the seventeenth century and demonstrates how the struggle over monetary policy prefigured the patriot reaction to the Stamp Act and so-called Intolerable Acts on the eve of American independence.

Thanks to generous funding from the Arizona State University and George Mason University, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access (OA) volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other Open Access repositories.

Author / Editor information

Jonathan Barth is Assistant Professor of History at Arizona State University. He has published in numerous journals including William & Mary Quarterly and New England Quarterly.

Reviews

Trevor Burnard, University of Hull, author of Jamaica in the Age of Revolution:

Well-written, engaging, and startling, The Currency of Empire takes a new and insightful approach to the study of currency issues in early America and the development of an imperial state in British America.

Farley Grubb, University of Delaware, author of German Immigration and Servitude in America, 1709–1920:

The Currency of Empire fills a significant gap in the literature. Jonathan Barth's book offers a compelling new and important interpretation of currency in trans-Atlantic economies at the end of the 17th century that is deeply researched, well focused, and persuasive.

Cathy Matson, Director, Program in Early American Economy and Society:

Jonathan Barth deftly uses the words of England's treatise writers and policy makers to illuminate the central role of silver and gold in making seventeenth-century empires. His clear and compelling narrative in The Currency of Empire shows that getting and investing money triggered struggles for political power, state security, and conquests abroad.

Topics

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	i
Contents Open Access Download PDF	vii
Introduction Open Access Download PDF	1
1. Silver, Mercantilism, and the Impulse for Colonization Open Access Download PDF	12
2. The First Decades of English American Settlement, 1607–1639 Open Access Download PDF	41
3. Monetary Upheaval, Recovery and the Dutch Infiltration, 1640–1659 Open Access Download PDF	72
4. Mercantilism, Mints, Clipping, Smuggling, and Piracy, 1660–1674 Open Access Download PDF	104
5. Empire in Crisis and Flux, 1670–1677 Open Access Download PDF	137
6. Showdown in English America, 1675–1684 Open Access Download PDF	164
7. Economic Rebellion, Competition, and Growth in English America, 1680–1685 Open Access Download PDF	193
8. Revolutions of 1685–1689 Open Access Download PDF	222
9. Reconstructing a Mercantilist Empire, 1690s Open Access Download PDF	249
Epilogue: The Grand Settlement Open Access Download PDF	290
Acknowledgments Open Access Download PDF	299
Notes Open Access Download PDF	301
Index Open Access Download PDF	375

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 396
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 12
- Images: 12
- Other: 12 b&w halftones
Keywords: coin in colonial America; political history of colonial America; mercantilism in Colonial America

eBook

Published: June 15, 2021
ISBN: 9781501755781