Description
Book SynopsisThis history of bimetallic monetary regimes in the Western world shows how changes in coining technology and fiscal systems affected the evolution of monetary regimes. The book explains why bimetallism was preferred to a gold standard before 1800. This book was first published in 2000.
Trade Review"Any historian of monetary standards needs not only to read Bimetallism: An Economic and Historical Analysis but also to keep a copy nearby...Redish has produced a wonderful book that any scholar of monetary standards will admire. All in all, my reaction to Bimetallism: An Economic and Historical Analysis is unqualified admiration." EH.Net
"Redish has produced a lovely and enlightening study of money systems from the medieval period to the present...The work is beautifully enriched by Redish's excellent integration of historical and economic analysis...A most commendable publication. Highly recommended for lower-division undergraduate through faculty collections." ls Choice
"The book provides an anlytical and descriptive history of the monetary standard...'The book attempts to straddle the gap between these two literatures, to allow for more complex monetary system than the economists' 'commodity money' and to find generalities that are buried in the historians' details'. Redish succeeds admirably in this goal." Lawrence H. Officer, Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; 1. From the Carolingian penny to the Classical gold standard; 2. The mechanics of commodity money; 3. Bimetallism before the nineteenth century; 4. The issue of small-denomination coins; 5. Token coinage and the gold standard in the United Kingdom; 6. Transition to the gold standard in France; 7. Bimetallism in the United States; 8. Conclusions; References; Index.
