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State-Issued Currency and the Ratification of the U.S. Consitution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Mary M. Schweitzer
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History, Villanova University, Villanova, PA 19085.

Extract

Paper money, a major component of the colonial money supply, was critical to the economic policies of the colonial legislatures. Why did the state legislatures relinquish the power to issue money to the new federal government through the ratification of the Constitution? Hostility between states with radically different philosophies regarding paper money raised concerns about the viability of the union, and it was this fear which led to the clause in the Federal Constitution that prohibited state paper money issues.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1989

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References

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