BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
368 Pages, 6 x 9
Formats: Paperback
Paperback, $25.95 (US $25.95) (CA $28.95)
Publication Date: October 2011
ISBN 9781598130430
A fascinating story of the important yet virtually unknown episode in the history of money, this history chronicles the British manufacturers’ challenge to the Crown’s monopoly on coinage. In the 1780s, when the Industrial Revolution was gathering momentum, the Royal Mint failed to produce enough small-denomination coinage for factory owners to pay their workers. As the currency shortage threatened to derail industrial progress, manufacturers began to mint custom-made coins, called “tradesman’s tokens,” which served as the nation’s most popular currency for wages and retail sales until 1821, when the Crown outlawed all moneys except its own. This book not only examines the crucial role of private coinage in fueling Great Britain’s Industrial Revolution, but also sheds light on contemporary private-sector alternatives to government-issued money, such as digital monies, cash cards, electronic funds transfer, and—outside of the United States—spontaneous “dollarization.”
“George Selgin demonstrates a remarkable breadth and depth of scholarship in this multi-discipline work. I heartedly recommend it.” —Charles A. E. Goodhart, Norman Sosnow Professor of Banking and Finance, London School of Economics
“Good Money is a pleasure to read, and offers economic and historical scholarship of the highest quality.” —Tyler Cowen, Director of the James Buchanan Center, George Mason University
“Selgin reveals much about the dynamic of the British economy in this period and the fractious relationship between private enterprise and the apparatus of the state.” —Economic History Review
George Selgin is a research fellow at the Independent Institute and a professor of economics at the