Papers presented by Sydney Sweat since 2019
2020 Charlotte, North Carolina
"Economic Innovation through Community Persistence"
Sydney Sweat, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Abstract:
: Today, paper money is taken for granted as a modern form of commodity money, however, in the 1720s the fight over currency legislation in Pennsylvania caused a rift between the proprietary family and the farmers and merchants who needed an easily transferable and uniform form of payment to participate in the colonial economy and to support the colonial government’s expenses. This paper will focus on the community work of Pennsylvanians in 1723 in order to get currency bills passed and to create Pennsylvania’s first Loan Bank, as well as the political backlash it created due to the spike in democracy practiced by citizens. However, the lobbying and rioting of community members did more than create Pennsylvania’s General Loan Bank, it opened a path for popular demonstrations against the Penn family’s authority that became the way in which the colony negotiated policy. By printing colonial bills of credit, or notes, the Provincial Assembly essentially created a new form of currency, which prevented excessive inflation, that lessened the need for taxation due to interest payments on loans, which only served to further the mindset that the Loan Bank was a chartered entity that operated for the people, by the people.