“So constantly have the ideas currency and government been associated—so universal has been the control exercised by lawgivers over monetary systems—and so completely have men come to regard this control as a matter of course, that scarcely any one seems to inquire what would result were it abolished. Perhaps in no case is the necessity of state-superintendence so generally assumed; and in no case will the denial of that necessity cause so much surprise. Yet must the denial be made.”





- Herbert Spencer, Social Statistics

M



Origin of the Dollar in the US

D

The Rise of the Gold Standard



G

“....government decided it would "help out" the market by interfering to "simplify" matters. The result was another of the many well-intentioned blunders imposed on a populace by force of law."

(1)

Gresham’s Law

“Gold flowed into the mint, silver disappeared, and the country found itself on a de facto gold standard.”

The competition of gold and silver monies facilitated the growth of an increasingly productive, industrialized economy.

Free competition of stable money facilitates economic prosperity, but it also makes government manipulation of the money supply very difficult.

“Perturbed at this slap to its sovereignty...”,

passed the

outlawing the use of foreign coins in the US.

Section 1 of the Gold Standard Act of 1900: “Be it enacted . ., That the dollar consisting of twenty-five and eight-tenths grains of gold nine-tenths fine, as established by section thirty-five hundred and eleven of the Revised Statutes of the United States, shall be the standard unit of value, and all forms of money issued or coined by the United States...”