Agreed but I am quite sure there was another time around the turn of 1900 where either England or the USA went full fiat.
I will have to look it up.
Agreed but I am quite sure there was another time around the turn of 1900 where either England or the USA went full fiat.
I will have to look it up.
No, before the USD became the world reserve currency at Bretton Woods, England was already running a pound sterling exchange system. In fact, it was because our central banks colluded to restore the pound to its pre war parity that the U.S. suffered the roaring twenties followed by the Great Depression. Blame Norman Montagu and Benjamin Strong for that.
Check out Rothbard's America's Great Depression, and his History of Money and Banking for all the juicy details. Also helpful are his The Mystery of Banking, and his The Progressive Era.
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That said - there were periods of inflationary credit expansion before 1913, e.g., in the War Between the States (a.k.a. "Civil War"). And I'm pretty sure the Southern Conferdates currency was fiat but not certain on that.
Whether they did or didn't, the main reason they do it whenever they do is to fund war. The timing of the 1913 Federal Reserve Act is, therefore, incredibly suspicious.