Easy Money: American Puritans and the Invention of Modern Currency

A sweeping history of the American invention of modern money.

Economists endlessly debate the nature of legal tender monetary systems-coins and bills issued by a government or other authority. Yet the origins of these currencies have received little attention.

Dror Goldberg tells the story of modern money in North America through the Massachusetts colony during the seventeenth century. As the young settlement transitioned to self-governance and its economy grew, the need to formalize a smooth...