Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: New Books in Economic and Business History
Episode: Dror Goldberg, "Easy Money: American Puritans and the Invention of Modern Currency" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
Description: Economists endlessly debate the nature of legal tender monetary systems--coins and bills issued by a government or other authority. Yet the origins of these currencies have received little attention.Dror Goldberg tells the story of modern money in North America through the Massachusetts colony during the seventeenth century. As the young settlement transitioned to self-governance and its economy grew, the need to formalize a smooth exchange emerged. Printing local money followed.Easy Money: American Puritans and the Invention of Modern Currency (U Chicago Press, 2023) illustrates how colonists invented contemporary currency by shifting its foundation from i...