tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post7677842258555387016..comments2024-03-28T02:46:03.227-04:00Comments on The Historical Society: Reading Primary Sources: Bank NotesRandallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16755286304057000048noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-13713597601168826632011-01-26T11:53:21.725-05:002011-01-26T11:53:21.725-05:00A lovely summary of bank notes, Dan. A couple thin...A lovely summary of bank notes, Dan. A couple things, though: greenbacks were only printed in green on the back. This is a great tidbit in classes (or it used to be, before our currency started changing every three minutes). You could liven up a class by asking students what color our money is. They would answer "green," of course, and when you asked them to take out a bill and look at it, they always discovered with astonishment that the print was only green on the back. The front printing is black.<br /><br />Also, while banks literally "made money" by, well, printing currency, a bank's owners increased their capital by charging interest on loans. Hence the drive to print lots and lots of money to make more loans (which sometimes caused them to go belly up).<br /><br />Also, Chase deliberately set up the national banks to create a market for bonds, as well as to comfort westerners, who were, in 1863, terribly nervous about inflation and financial instability. They came to love the greenbacks, of course, but in 1863 they were still nervous after the collapse of western banks in 1861 (most western currency was secured by Southern state bonds), and by the sight of Confederate currency inflating wildly. So, while I'm no fan of Chase at all-- he ranks in my mind as one of our sleaziest nineteenth-century politicians, and that's saying something!-- we can't suggest he was pulling this plan out of a hat. It was a pretty logical outgrowth of contemporary ideas about secure banking.<br /><br />OK, more than anyone but the two of us want to know. But thanks for doing this. I will use it in my Civil War classes. It's a great summary of a really important issue that no one thinks to mention.hcrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07334093881332383848noreply@blogger.com