{"id":125,"date":"2010-02-02T14:11:31","date_gmt":"2010-02-02T21:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=125"},"modified":"2010-02-02T14:11:31","modified_gmt":"2010-02-02T21:11:31","slug":"north-americas-first-hyperinflation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/02\/north-americas-first-hyperinflation\/","title":{"rendered":"North America’s first hyperinflation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good (though derivative) article<\/a> on America’s original collapsed currency — the infamous Continental.<\/p>\n

What you’ve gotta love (or at least roll your eyes at) is how little has really changed in all these hundreds of years:<\/p>\n

\n

At first, the bills were accepted at face value. After all, they were issued by Patriots for Patriots. One ominous result, however, was that almost immediately all hard money disappeared. … Who wants to spend their guineas when paper is just as acceptable? The trouble was, of course, that paper wasn\u2019t as acceptable and many merchants preferred real money to paper. In fact, this became so frequently the case that Congress had to pass a resolution in January. 1776 that \u201cwhoever should refuse to receive in payment Continental bills, should be declared and treated as an enemy of his country and be excluded from inter-course with its inhabitants.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Legal tender laws, anyone? And …<\/p>\n

\n

One member of the Continental Congress was quoted as saying: \u201cDo you think, gentlemen, that I will consent to load my constituents with taxes, when we can send to our printer and get a wagon load of money, one quire of which will pay for the whole?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(Original source of those two passages: The Order of the Founders and Patriots of America<\/a>)<\/p>\n

And …<\/p>\n

\n

It is surely some kind of sociological law that the state always blames actors other than itself for the unpleasant consequences of its own activities. In some situations it even goes so far as to stigmatize people for not wanting to enter into transactions that would make them poorer \u2014 as when, for instance, they are expected to accept payment for their goods and services in severely depreciated currency.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersons who refused to sell their lands, houses, or merchandise for nearly worthless paper were stigmatized as misers, traitors, forestallers, and enemies of liberty,\u201d wrote Charles Bullock in 1900, \u201cbut prices continued to rise, as the inflation of the currency proceeded apace.\u201d George Washington condemned \u201cthe monopolizers, forestallers, and engrossers,\u201d who he said should be hunted down as \u201cpests of society\u201d and \u201changed upon a gallows.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(Original source: Ludwig von Mises Institute<\/a>)<\/p>\n

And how about that old freedom-lovin’ George? <\/p>\n

He may be the father of the U.S. and the general who won the Revolutionary War. But once he had political power he was NOT<\/a> exactly a champion of liberty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, I print this whole ramble not for history’s sake. But more for preparedness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c… whoever should refuse to receive in payment Continental bills, should be declared and treated as an enemy of his country and be excluded from inter-course with its inhabitants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue readingNorth America’s first hyperinflation<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-money","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}