Lawrence White on Private Gold Mints

George SelginEvery hoary myth about the private market ' s unfitness to supply means of exchange has roots that trace back to the hoariest monetary platitude of all, namely, the claim that governments alone, whether republican or absolutist or otherwise, are fit to coin money.That commonplacecredendum dates from ancient times, and wasa staple of medieval and early-modern monetary writings. Paradoxically enough, after stating the standard dogma, most of those writings go on to describe in lurid detail, and vigorously condemn, sovereigns ' frequent and flagrant abuse of their coining privileges!Yet the myth survives, thanks to the belief that, bad as some governments were (and oftenstill are) at supplying their citizens with decent coins, competing private firms would have been worse.Why Not See?But why speculate? Why not look for actual episodes of private coining, and see just how bad it was? Some years ago,I did just that, by looking at private-sector minting and issuance of silver and copper token coins during Great Britain ' s industrial revolution. And it was not only not bad but pretty darn good, and a damn sight better than the coining done by Great Britain ' s Royal Mint.In his newCMFA working paper, " The Private Mint in Economics: Evidence from American Gold Rushes, " CMFA Senior Fellow Lawrence White does for private-sector gold coining in the U.S. what I did for copper and silver coining in Great Britain. That is, he actually looks into how well it worked, instead ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs