Not quite. 1913 was when the banks were cartelized under the federal reserve. They slowly began to centralize a major aspect id the free market system with its.price discovery miracle--that is, interest rates. And the money supply. Holding gold privately was outlawed some 20 years later under FDR, but the "federal reserve notes" were still backed by gold to some degree. Then came Bretton Woods after WWII, when we went to the gold-exchange system. Fast forward to 15 Aug 1971 when the U.S.A. went bankrupt under Nixon and weve been full fiat ever since. And, as everyone knows, "you never go full [fiat]."
Discussion
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.