Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The Specie Payment Resumption Act of January 14, 1875 was a law in the United States that restored the nation to the gold standard through the redemption of previously unbacked United States Notes [1] and reversed inflationary government policies promoted directly after the American Civil War.
Hard money policies support a specie standard, usually gold or silver, typically implemented with representative money. In 1836, when President Andrew Jackson's veto of the recharter of the Second Bank of the United States took effect, he issued the Specie Circular, an executive order that all public lands had to be purchased with hard money.
The Specie Circular is a United States presidential executive order issued by President Andrew Jackson on 11 July 1836 pursuant to the Coinage Act of 1834. It required payment for government land to be in gold and silver (specie). [1] It was repealed by a joint act of Congress on 21 May 1838. [2]
President Hayes began his address by highlighting the successful implementation of the Resumption Act of 1875, which had restored specie payments. He noted the economic revival following the stabilization of currency, with increased foreign demand for American goods and a reduction in the public debt.
The bank run came to a head on May 10, 1837, when banks in New York City ran out of gold and silver. They immediately suspended specie payments, and would no longer redeem commercial paper in specie at full face value. [3] A significant economic collapse followed: despite a brief recovery in 1838, the recession persisted for nearly seven years.
A wildcat bank is broadly defined as one that prints more currency than it is capable of continuously redeeming in specie. A more specific definition, established by historian of economics Hugh Rockoff in the 1970s, applies the term to free banks whose notes were backed by overvalued securities – bonds which were valued at par by the state, but which had a market value below par. [2]
The crisis deepened when the Bank of England suspended specie payments on February 25, 1797 under the Bank Restriction Act 1797. The bank's directors feared insolvency when English account holders, who were nervous about a possible French invasion, began withdrawing their deposits in sterling rather than bank notes.
In 1873, the government passed the Fourth Coinage Act and soon resumed specie payments without the free and unlimited coinage of silver. This put the U.S. on a mono-metallic gold standard, angering the proponents of monetary silver, known as the silverites. They referred to this act as "The Crime of ’73", as it was judged to have inhibited ...