IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ejw/journl/v3y2006i2p251-274.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Farley Grubb’s Noisy Evasions on Colonial Money: A Rejoinder

Author

Listed:
  • Ronald W. Michener
  • Robert E. Wright

Abstract

Grubb's recent papers (2003, 2004, 2006b) are aimed at nothing less than rewriting important chapters of early American history. Our goal in both our AER and EJW comments was a negative one, to dissuade readers from accepting Grubb’s views and data. We are humbled by the complexity of the early American monetary system and the meagerness of the available evidence. We nowhere make the blanket claims that Grubb attributes to us, namely, that specie was plentiful, that exchange rates were immutable, or that cross-colony circulation of bills of credit was ubiquitous. Instead, we offer evidence that at some times and places specie was more abundant than Grubb claims, that most colonial exchange rates oscillated within broad specie points, and that bills of credit often circulated in adjacent colonies. And again, we make such claims with one point only in mind, to alert scholars that Grubb’s interpretation is highly suspect.

Suggested Citation

  • Ronald W. Michener & Robert E. Wright, 2006. "Farley Grubb’s Noisy Evasions on Colonial Money: A Rejoinder," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 3(2), pages 251-274, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:ejw:journl:v:3:y:2006:i:2:p:251-274
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econjwatch.org/File+download/113/2006-05-michenerwright-com.pdf?mimetype=pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://econjwatch.org/216
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Farley Grubb, 2004. "The Constitutional Creation of a Common Currency in the U.S., 1748-1811: Monetary Stabilization versus Merchant Rent Seeking," Working Papers 04-07, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    2. Weiss, Roger W., 1970. "The Issue of Paper Money in the American Colonies, 1720–1774," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(4), pages 770-784, December.
    3. repec:ucp:bkecon:9780226910260 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Farley Grubb, 2003. "Creating the U.S. Dollar Currency Union, 1748–1811: A Quest for Monetary Stability or a Usurpation of State Sovereignty for Personal Gain?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(5), pages 1778-1798, December.
    5. Michener, Ron, 1988. "Backing Theories and the Currencies of Eighteenth-Century America: A Comment," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(03), pages 682-692, September.
    6. Michener, Ronald, 1987. "Fixed exchange rates and the quantity theory in colonial America," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 233-307, January.
    7. Ronald W. Michener & Robert E. Wright, 2005. "State "Currencies" and the Transition to the U.S. Dollar: Clarifying Some Confusions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 682-703, June.
    8. Grubb, Farley, 2004. "The circulating medium of exchange in colonial Pennsylvania, 1729-1775: new estimates of monetary composition, performance, and economic growth," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 329-360, October.
    9. Farley Grubb, 2006. "Theory, Evidence, and Belief—The Colonial Money Puzzle Revisited: Reply to Michener and Wright," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 3(1), pages 45-72, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Farley Grubb, 2016. "Is Paper Money Just Paper Money? Experimentation and Variation in the Paper Monies Issued by the American Colonies from 1690 to 1775," Research in Economic History, in: Research in Economic History, volume 32, pages 147-224, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    2. Farley Grubb, 2020. "Colonial New Jersey’s Paper Money, 1709–1775: Why Ronald Michener Insists on Using Uncorrected Data—A Reply," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 17(1), pages 1-71–89, March.
    3. Farley Grubb, 2006. "Benjamin Franklin and Colonial Money: A Reply to Michener and Wright—Yet Again," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 3(3), pages 484-510, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Farley Grubb, 2006. "Benjamin Franklin and Colonial Money: A Reply to Michener and Wright—Yet Again," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 3(3), pages 484-510, September.
    2. Ronald W. Michener & Robert E. Wright, 2006. "Miscounting Money of Colonial America," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 3(1), pages 4-44, January.
    3. Farley Grubb, 2006. "Theory, Evidence, and Belief—The Colonial Money Puzzle Revisited: Reply to Michener and Wright," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 3(1), pages 45-72, January.
    4. Farley Grubb, 2016. "Is Paper Money Just Paper Money? Experimentation and Variation in the Paper Monies Issued by the American Colonies from 1690 to 1775," Research in Economic History, in: Research in Economic History, volume 32, pages 147-224, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    5. Farley Grubb, 2003. "Two Theories of Money Reconciled: The Colonial Puzzle Revisited with New Evidence," Working Papers 03-03, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    6. Peter L. Rousseau, 2010. "Monetary Policy and the Dollar," NBER Chapters, in: Founding Choices: American Economic Policy in the 1790s, pages 121-149, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Farley Grubb, 2020. "Colonial New Jersey’s Paper Money, 1709–1775: Why Ronald Michener Insists on Using Uncorrected Data—A Reply," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 17(1), pages 1-71–89, March.
    8. Farley Grubb, 2012. "Chronic Specie Scarcity and Efficient Barter: The Problem of Maintaining an Outside Money Supply in British Colonial America ," Working Papers 12-08, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    9. Farley W. Grubb, 2005. "State "Currencies" and the Transition to the U.S. Dollar: Reply—Including a New View from Canada," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1341-1348, September.
    10. Farley Grubb, 2014. "A New Approach to Explaining the Value of Colonial Paper Money: Evidence from New Jersey, 1709-1775," Working Papers 14-08, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    11. Grubb, Farley, 2004. "The circulating medium of exchange in colonial Pennsylvania, 1729-1775: new estimates of monetary composition, performance, and economic growth," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 329-360, October.
    12. Ronald W. Michener, 2019. "Re-examination of the Empirical Evidence Concerning Colonial New Jersey's Paper Money, 1709–1775: A Comment on Farley Grubb," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 16(2), pages 180–217-1, September.
    13. Farley Grubb, 2013. "Colonial New Jersey's Paper Money Regime, 1709-1775: A Forensic Accounting Reconstruction of the Data," NBER Working Papers 19710, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Bryan P Cutsinger & Vincent Geloso & Mathieu Bédard, 2022. "The wild card: colonial paper money in French North America, 1685 to 1719 [Economic Structure and Agricultural Productivity in Europe, 1300–1800]," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 26(2), pages 185-207.
    15. Farley Grubb, 2008. "Creating Maryland's Paper Money Economy, 1720-1739: The Role of Power, Print, and Markets," NBER Working Papers 13974, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Farley Grubb, 2017. "The Paper Money of Colonial North Carolina, 1712-1774," Working Papers 17-01, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    17. Farley Grubb, 2012. "Is Paper Money just Paper Money/ Experimentation and Local Variation in the Fiat Paper Monies Issued by the Colonial Government of British North America, 1690-1775: Part I," Working Papers 12-07, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    18. Farley Grubb, 2014. "A New Approach to Solving the Colonial Monetary Puzzle: Evidence from New Jersey, 1709-1775," NBER Working Papers 19903, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Michael Sproul, 1998. "The Quantity Theory versus the Real Bills Doctrine in Colonial America," UCLA Economics Working Papers 775B, UCLA Department of Economics.
    20. Farley Grubb, 2013. "The Continental Dollar: How the American Revolution was Financed with Paper Money—Chapter 3 Initial Design and Idea Performance," Working Papers 13-10, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ejw:journl:v:3:y:2006:i:2:p:251-274. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jason Briggeman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/edgmuus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.