Relevance of the Currency Act of 1764 to today

[CrusaderFrank]

Everyone knows that the Colonists decided to go to war against the British because of a tax on tea, right? Does that really seem right to you? Well there's more to it than that

The real reasons for the Revolution began over a decade earlier and, much like today's kindling pile, took a long time to finally ignite.

A decade prior to the enactment of the Currency Act, starting in 1754, the French and British went to war over control of the Americas. That war ended very favorable for the British in 1763, with the British picking up vast territories in the Americas. Once the war ended however, the British had the problem of how to pay for the war they just fought.

In the Colonies, each State issued their own currency. These were usually limited issues, with no Central bank charging interest. Commerce between the States was slightly complicated with the market setting the price differences between the State currencies. If it was felt that a State unjustly issued too much currency, you would have to ask more more of that currency to but your goods. For example, it might cost 2 NY Dollars to buy what 1 Virginia dollar could buy. None of the colonies were able to mine gold or silver to back their currency, they were almost almost backed by the faith and credit of the respective State.

This worked great for the Colonies, business and trade boomed between them. The problem arose when the Colonies traded with the British. The British pound Sterling was like today's US dollar, it was the world's main currency. The Colonies had very limited ways of earning £. They had to sell the British items that they would pay for in £. When the Colonies had to make payments to the British, they usually used their various currencies. Some of the States tried to take advantage of this by issuing more currency and basically depreciating their currency - much like today's $

The bankers in London were not pleased with accepting essentially trinkets and beaver pelts to pay their war debts, so the Crown passed the Currency Act of 1764 which at first forbade the Colonies from issuing their Currencies and required that all payment to the Crown be made in £ British Pound Sterling. This devastated the local economies. There no half steps or negotiated measures to accommodate and facilitate trade between the colonies and the Crown - just BOOM!

Remember this: The Crown stopped accepting the local currencies and this impoverished the Colonies.

Today, the world takes US dollars, a privilege that our politicians have absolutely abused. We export inflation and pay with depreciated dollars.

The World has taken notice and, while they are not able to pass a Currency Act, in some instances, they have stopped accepting US $ and are accepting Chinese Yuan instead. The Chinese and Russians have been accumulating massive amounts of gold and have been liquidating their US Treasury holding to accomplish this.

It's a slow motion, massive, epic motion- like financial rumblings at the Yellowstone Caldera.

 

[Curried Goats]

Everyone knows that the Colonists decided to go to war against the British because of a tax on tea, right? Does that really seem right to you? Well there's more to it than that

The real reasons for the Revolution began over a decade earlier and, much like today's kindling pile, took a long time to finally ignite.

A decade prior to the enactment of the Currency Act, starting in 1754, the French and British went to war over control of the Americas. That war ended very favorable for the British in 1763, with the British picking up vast territories in the Americas. Once the war ended however, the British had the problem of how to pay for the war they just fought.

In the Colonies, each State issued their own currency. These were usually limited issues, with no Central bank charging interest. Commerce between the States was slightly complicated with the market setting the price differences between the State currencies. If it was felt that a State unjustly issued too much currency, you would have to ask more more of that currency to but your goods. For example, it might cost 2 NY Dollars to buy what 1 Virginia dollar could buy. None of the colonies were able to mine gold or silver to back their currency, they were almost almost backed by the faith and credit of the respective State.

This worked great for the Colonies, business and trade boomed between them. The problem arose when the Colonies traded with the British. The British pound Sterling was like today's US dollar, it was the world's main currency. The Colonies had very limited ways of earning £. They had to sell the British items that they would pay for in £. When the Colonies had to make payments to the British, they usually used their various currencies. Some of the States tried to take advantage of this by issuing more currency and basically depreciating their currency - much like today's $

The bankers in London were not pleased with accepting essentially trinkets and beaver pelts to pay their war debts, so the Crown passed the Currency Act of 1764 which at first forbade the Colonies from issuing their Currencies and required that all payment to the Crown be made in £ British Pound Sterling. This devastated the local economies. There no half steps or negotiated measures to accommodate and facilitate trade between the colonies and the Crown - just BOOM!

Remember this: The Crown stopped accepting the local currencies and this impoverished the Colonies.

Today, the world takes US dollars, a privilege that our politicians have absolutely abused. We export inflation and pay with depreciated dollars.

The World has taken notice and, while they are not able to pass a Currency Act, in some instances, they have stopped accepting US $ and are accepting Chinese Yuan instead. The Chinese and Russians have been accumulating massive amounts of gold and have been liquidating their US Treasury holding to accomplish this.

It's a slow motion, massive, epic motion- like financial rumblings at the Yellowstone Caldera.

What's the value of the Ruble amd Yuan?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

What's the value of the Ruble amd Yuan?

 

[Curried Goats]

You're pointing to propaganda. I'm asking about facts and figures. What's the factual value of the Ruble and Yuan against the Dollar?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

You're pointing to propaganda. I'm asking about facts and figures. What's the factual value of the Ruble and Yuan against the Dollar?

What were NY dollars worth in 1763?

 

[Lesh]

What’s funny is that the whole “tea” thing was about a tax CUT. The English Crown removed export taxes on English tea to make it more competitive with smuggled Dutch tea

This pissed off the smugglers. Ya know… the “Patriots”

 

[Curried Goats]

What were NY dollars worth in 1763?

What was Rhode Islands? We replaced the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution for a reason. Allowing States to set their own monetary policies allowed them to devalue their currency and neglect the National debt. This country would of been bankrupt without a unified fiscal policy.

 

[JWBooth]

Excerpts from Our Enemy the State, Albert J. Nock
pgs 54 - 56
Great evidential value may be attached to the long line of adverse commercial legislation laid down by the British State from 1651 onward, especially to that portion of it which was enacted after the merchant-State established itself firmly in England in consequence of the events of 1688. This legislation included the Navigation Acts, the Trade Acts, acts regulating the colonial currency, the act of 1752 regulating the process of levy and distress, and the procedures leading up to the establishment of the Board of Trade in 1696.[11] These directly affected the industrial and commercial interests in the colonies.

Over and above these, however, if the reader will put himself back into the ruling passion of the time, he will at once appreciate the import of two matters which have for some reason escaped the attention of historians. The first of these is the attempt of the British State to limit the exercise of the political means in respect of rental-values.[12] In 1763 it forbade the colonists to take up lands lying westward of the source of any river flowing through the Atlantic seaboard. The dead- line thus established ran so as to cut off from predmption about half of Pennsylvania and half of Virginia and everything to the west thereof.

The actual state of land-speculation during the colonial period will give a fair idea of the probabilities in the case. Most of it was done on the company-system; a number of adventurers would unite, secure a grant of land, survey it, and then sell it off as speedily as they could. Their aim was a quick turnover; they did not, as a rule, contemplate holding the land, much less settling it - in short, their ventures were a pure gamble in rental-values.[13] Among these pre-revolutionary enterprises was the Ohio Company, formed in 1748 with a grant of half a million acres; the Loyal Company, which like the Ohio Company, was composed of Virginians; the Transylvania, the Vandalia, Scioto, Indiana, Wabash, Illinois, Susquehannah, and others whose holdings were smaller.

For example, aside from his individual ventures, General Washington was a member of the Ohio Company, and a prime mover in organizing the Mississippi Company. He also conceived the scheme of the Potomac Company, which was designed to raise the rental-
value of western holdings by affording an outlet for their produce by canal and portage to the Potomac River, and thence to the seaboard.

Patrick Henry was an inveterate and voracious engrosser of land lying beyond the deadline set by the British State; later he was heavily involved in the affairs of one of the notorious Yazoo companies, operating in Georgia. He seems to have been most unscrupulous. His company's holdings in Georgia, amounting to more than ten million acres, were to be paid for in Georgia scrip, which was much depreciated. Henry bought up all these certificates that he could get his hands on, at ten cents on the dollar, and made a great profit on them by their rise in value when Hamilton put through his measure for having the central government assume the debts they represented.

Benjamin Franklin's thrifty mind turned cordially to the project of the Vandalia Company, and he acted successfully as promoter for it in England in 1766. Timothy Pickering, who was Secretary of State under Washington and John Adams, went on record in 1796 that "all I am now worth was gained by speculations in land."