Counting Money: The US Dollar and American Nationhood, 1781–1820

Journal of American Studies

Volumn 35, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 21-46

  Garson, Robert ^a  

^a KEELE UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 85012494214     PISSN: 00218758     EISSN: 14695154     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S002187580100651X     Document Type: Article

References (40)

1. Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism (New York and Oxford, 1993), 25 78; Robert H. Wiebe, The Opening of American Society : From the Adoption of the Constitution to the Eve of Disunion (New York, 1985), 36-37.
2. Paul Nagel, One Nation Indivisible : The Union in American Thought, 1776-1861 (New York, 1964) Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (New York, 1991) David Freeman Hawke, Everyday Life in Early America (New York, 1998) David Waldstreicher, In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes : The Making of American Nationalism, 1776-1820 (Chapel Hill, 1997) Len Travers, Celebrating the Fourth : Independence Day and the Rites of Nationalism in the Early Republic (Amherst, 1997) Wilbur Zelinsky, Nation into State : The Shifting Symbolic Foundations of American Nationalism (Chapel Hill and London, 1988) Lester C. Olson, Emblems of American Community in the Revolutionary Era: A Study in Rhetorical Iconology (Washington D.C. and London, 1991).
3. See James Buchan, Frozen Desire : An Inquiry into the Meaning of Money (London, 1997) Georg Simmel, The Philosophy of Money (translated edition, London, 1990) David Boyle, Funny Money: In Search of Alternative Cash (London, 1999) Fritz Breithaupt, “Money as a Medium of Communication and Money as Individuation,” New Orleans Review, 24 (Summer 1998), 23-29.
4. See Edwin J. Perkins, American Finance and Financial Services, 1700-1815 (Columbus, Ohio, 1994) John J. McCusker, Money and Exchange in Europe and America, 1600-1775 : A Handbook (Chapel Hill, 1978) Curtis P. Nettels, The Money Supply of the American Colonies Before 1720 (Madison, 1934) Raphael E. Solomon, “Foreign Specie Coins in the American Colonies,” in Eric P. Newman and Richard G. Doty, eds., Studies on Money in Early America (New York, 1976), 25-42.
5. Samuel Breck, Historical Sketch of Continental Paper Money (Philadelphia, 1843), 27, 39.
6. Nathan Daboll, Daboll's Schoolmaster's Assistant : Improved and Enlarged, Being a Plain Practical System of Arithmetic Adapted to the United States (New London, Conn., 1818). The first edition of this popular work appeared in 1800. The formulae for calculating exchange rates did not change.
7. Arthur Nussbaum, A History of the Dollar (New York, 1957), 45; Thomas M. Doerflinger, A Vigorous Spirit of Enterprise : Merchants and Economic Development in Revolutionary Philadelphia (Chapel Hill, 1986), 268-69. The small denominations were still called pence and not cents as they did not represent decimal fractions.
8. Quoted in C. D. Hellman, “ Jefferson's Efforts towards Decimalization of United States Weights and Measures, Isis, 16 (1931), 267; Max M. Mintz, Gouverneur Morris and the American Revolution (Norman, Okla., 1970), 133-45.
9. Gouverneur Morris to William Hemsley, 30 Apr. 1783, The Papers of Robert Morris, 1781-84 (8 vols., Pittsburgh, 1975-95), 7, 761-64.
10. Gary Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence (New York, 1978), 106, 119-38; Morris Kline, Mathematics in Western Culture (London, 1954), 238-54; Brooke Hindle, David Rittenhouse (Princeton, 1964), 82-92.
11. Notes on Coinage, March to May 1784; Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, 3 May 1784, Julian P. Boyd et al., ed., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, (Princeton, 1953), 7, 175-85.
12. Robert Morris to Jefferson, 1 May 1784; Notes for Reply to Robert Morris, 7-9 May 1784, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 7, 189-94.
13. Propositions Respecting Coinage, May 1785, Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789 (Washington D.C., 1904-37), 28, 354-55; Board of Treasury to Continental Congress, 8 Apr. 1786; Proposal 1, Journals of the Continental Congress, 30, 162, 166-68; Nathaniel Gorham to James Bowdoin, 18 May 1786; Timothy Bloodworth to Richard Caswell, 16 Aug. 1786, in Paul H. Smith et al., eds., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1784-1789 25 vols., (Washington, D.C., 1976-98), 23, 295-96, 475; Nathan Deane's Address to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 9 November 1786, Notes for Reply to Robert Morris., 24, 18.
14. See Max Farrand, ed., The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. 4 vols., (New Haven, 1966 edn.), 2, 308, 3, 117-18. Alfred to the Real Patriots of America, 13 Dec. 1787, in Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, 14 : Commentaries on the Constitution, Public and Private (Madison, 1993), 433; Bray Hammond, Banks and Politics in America: From the Revolution to the Civil War (Princeton, 1957), 91-94.
15. Thomas McKean in Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution : II, Pennsylvania (Madison, 1976), 415.
16. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, The Federalist Papers, ed. Clinton Rossiter (New York, 1961), 188; also, Gerald Stourzh, Alexander Hamilton and the Idea of a Republican Government (Stanford, 1970) Sidney Homer and Richard Sylla, A History of Interest Rates (Brunswick, New Jersey, 1996), 283.
17. A Citizen of New York, The Commercial Conduct of the United States of America Considered and the True Interest Thereof (New York, 1786), 5-6, 10; An American, The True Interest of the United States, and Particularly of Pennsylvania, Considered With Respect to the Advantages Resulting from a State Paper-Money (Philadelphia, 1786), 1-2.
18. Alexander Hamilton, “Report on Manufactures, December 5, 1791” in Jacob E. Cooke, ed., The Reports of Alexander Hamilton (New York, 1964), 115-205; Tench Coxe, A View of the United States of America, in a Series of Papers, Written at Various Times, between the Years 1787 and 1794 (Philadelphia, 1794), 290-302; Perkins, American Public Finance and Financial Services, 210-21.
19. “ Final Version of the Report on the Establishment of a Mint,” 28 January 1791, Harold C. Syrett and Jacob E. Cooke, eds., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, 26 vols., (New York and London, 1961-79), 7, 571. The legal tender status of foreign coins was not cancelled until 1857.
20. Jefferson to Hamilton, 24 Jan. 1791, Papers of Alexander Hamilton, 7, 451; Jefferson to John Rutherford, 25 Dec. 1792, in John Catanzariti ed., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, (Princeton, 1990), 24, 782; Hellman, “ Jefferson's Efforts towards the Decimalization of United States Weights and Measures,” 296.
21. Witold Kula, Measures and Men (Princeton, 1986), 115, 192, 210-35.
22. Morris to Jefferson, 7 Nov. 1791, in Charles T. Cullen, ed., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, (Princeton, 1986), 22, 265: Patricia Cline Cohen, “ Statistics and the State : Changing Social Thought and the Emergence of a Quantitative Mentality in America, 1790-1820,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, 38 (Jan. 1981), 36-41.
23. Ronald Edward Zupko, Revolution in Measurement: Western European Weights and Measures since the Age of Science (Philadelphia, 1990), 120-23.
24. E. Hatton, Decimals Made Easie : Containing an Explanation of Fractions in General, More Especially Decimals, and how to Read or Write any Fraction Whatsoever (London, 1699), 43.
25. Benjamin Martin, A New Compleat and Universal System or Body of Decimal Arithmetick (London, 1763), 3.
26. See H. Arthur Klein, The World of Measurements (London, 1975), 97-115; Zupko, Revolution in Measurement, 24-31, 103-08, 122-39; Ronald Edward Zupko, British Weights and Measures: A History from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century (Madison, 1977), 94-96; W. M. Feldman, Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy (New York, 1978 edn.) Sir John Bowring, The Decimal System in Numbers, Coins, and Accounts: Especially with Reference to the Decimalisation of the Currency and Accountancy of the United Kingdom (London, 1872), 1-34.
27. Patricia Cline Cohen, A Calculating People : The Spread of Numeracy in Early America (Chicago and London, 1982), 44, 85-86, 127.
28. Erastus Root, An Introduction to Arithmetic for the Common Schools (Boston, 1802) Cohen, A Calculating People, 129.
29. J. B. Bordley, On the Monies, Coins, Weights and Measurers Proposed for the United States of America (Philadelphia, 1789), 1-4.
30. Thomas Sarjeant, The Federal Arithmetician, or the Science of Numbers Improved (Philadelphia, 1793), 83-86. The dollar sign as we know it ($) was not yet in use. See Eric P. Newman, The Dollar Sign : Its Written and Printed Origins (New York, 1995). J. B. Bordley recognized early on the confusion that would arise in not having a consistent sign for the dollar. See J. B. Bordley, A Supplement to the Essay on Monies, Coins & c. Proposed for the United States of America (Philadelphia, 1790).
31. Samuel Sower, The Federal or New Ready Reckoner, and Traders Useful Assistant in Buying and Selling Commodities, either Wholesale or Retail Adapted to the Federal Money (Philadelphia, 1793) Root, An Introduction to Arithmetic for the Common Schools.
32. Alfred Coxe Prime, ed., The Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia, Maryland and South Carolina, 1786-1800 (Philadelphia, 1932), 3, 67, 103.
33. Aurora General Advertiser, 12 Jan., 3 Sept. 1795; Pennsylvania Gazette, 29 Feb., 4 July 1792
34. Aurora General Advertiser, 23 Feb. 1795.
35. Pennsylvania Gazette, 14 Dec. 1791.
36. James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson's Memorandum Books : Accounts with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767-1826, (Princeton, 1997), 2865, 1268.
37. The Intercourse of Nations : Being a Collection of Short & Easy Rules for Reducing Thirteen Different Coins and Currencies to Each Other, with a Concise Method of Calculating Federal Money (New York, 1795), 123; see also various receipts and cashiers’ orders in Pawnbrokers’ Tickets, Bank Notes, Cancelled Cheques etc., Box 12A, Miscellaneous Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
38. Notes and Queries, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 33 (1908), 250.
39. George Tucker, The Theory of Money and Banks Investigated (Boston, 1839), 63, 66. A British compendium of international currencies, weights and measures published in 1816 stated categorically, although not accurately, that in the USA “Accounts are kept the same as in England: in Pounds, Shillings and Pence.” See The Merchant and Ship- Master's Assistant : Or an Account of the Monies, Weights and Measures of the Principal Commercial Places of Europe, America, East and West Indies (North Shields, 1816), 76; also, Francis J. Grund, The Merchant's Assistant or Mercantile Instructor Containing a Full Account of the Monies, Coins, Weights and Measures of the Principal Trading Nations and their Colonies Together with their Values in United States Currency, Weights and Measures (Boston, 1834).
40. Montroville Wilson Dickeson, The American Numismatical Manual of the Currency or Money of the Aborigines, and Colonial, State and United States Coins (Philadelphia, 1859), 247; Nussbaum, A History of the Dollar, 61-63.