The proposed session reunites papers presenting local, regional, and global approaches to the political economy of commodity money from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The panelists are particularly interested in exploring the monetary and financial uses of precious metals, their markets, and the actors involved in their intermediation in different geographies and historical periods. The panelists aim to discuss their case studies’ findings in a venue that helps them envision a larger research agenda on the history of commodity money and its monetary policymaking regimes. This effort began last year in the BHC’s session “The Political Economy of Commodity Money,” which unfortunately had to be canceled due to the Covid-19 contingency.
Jane Knodell (The University of Vermont) will present a paper about how the colony of Massachusetts managed silver money from 1640 to 1720. Jane’s paper will focus on the oversight role of merchants, silversmiths, and members of the colony’s assembly in silver markets and monetary policymaking.
James Vladimir Torres (Georgetown University) will present a paper on the bullion and monetary flows in the Viceroyalty of New Granada (present-day Colombia and Ecuador) during the late colonial period. James reconstructs the region’s monetary geography and provides new evidence and insights to study the mechanics of bimetallism in the largest gold producing area of the Spanish empire.
Manuel Bautista Gonzalez (Columbia University in the City of New York) will present a paper about foreign consignees of specie imports in New Orleans from the late Jacksonian era through the Civil War (1838-1862). Manuel will examine some factors explaining their dominance of the New Orleans specie market vis-a-vis their American peers and banking and financial entities in the port.
Nick Guoth (Australian National University) will present a paper on the impact of the 1851 gold discovery in Australia and its relationship with Great Britain and other European countries. Nick focuses on the export of gold as ore or bullion from Australia, its distribution in Great Britain, and the institutional framework surrounding these operations.
Bernardo Bátiz Lazo (Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University) will chair and moderate the session. María Alejandra Irigoin (London School of Economics) will discuss the papers. The session will be of interest to scholars interested in the political economy of commodity money and monetary policymaking.