If they could be believed, Farley W. Grubb's recent papers on the early U.S. monetary system would be important contributions to scholarship and public policy. This paper shows, however, that Grubb's papers should not be believed. Grubb's key assumption, that the medium of exchange can be...

This study analyses the physical stature of runaway apprentices and military deserters based on advertisements collected from 18th-century newspapers, in order to explore the biological welfare of colonial and early-national Americans. The results indicate that heights declined somewhat at...

Both sides in the U.S. Civil War financed military spending by issuing new fiat currencies. The Union “greenback” underwent moderate inflation (by wartime standards), but the Confederate “grayback” suffered hyperinflation. Existing explanations for these price movements typically treat...