The Monetary History of Gold:
A Documentary History, 1660–1999
Editor: Mark Duckenfield
978 1 85196 785 8: 234x156mm: £110.00/$195.00
This collection consists of approximately 150 documents relating to the monetary role of gold from the seventeenth century to the present. It primarily uses government reports, legislation, laws and the texts of political speeches to map the rise of gold-backed currencies in the major west Europeans powers, the establishment of the international gold standard, and gold’s official place in the post-gold standard monetary world.
The Monetary History of Gold will be a useful reference for economic historians and for others studying the international monetary system and international political economy. Within these fields it will be an essential aid to those studying the history of the traditional gold standard. It will also be of interest to those studying the development of gold-backed currencies in Britain and the United States. Anyone interested in gold’s role as a monetary asset would find this a comprehensive collection of important documents.
Contents
Resolution of the House of Commons to prohibit the Exportation of Money and Bullion from England (21 May 1660); Excerpt from a Report of His Majesty’s Council of Trade advocating to the King the Execution of Provisions enabling the free Exportation of Gold and Silver from England (11 December 1660); ‘An Act to prevent the Inconvenience arising by melting the Silver Coin of this Realm’ (20 December 1662); Excerpt from the Diary of Samuel Pepys (19 May 1663); Excerpt from ‘An Act for the Encouragement of Trade’ (1 August 1663); ‘An Act for Encourageing of Coynage’ (20 December 1666); Excerpt from the Diary of Samuel Pepys (12–13 June, 19–20 June, 10–12 October 1667); ‘An Act for continuing a former Act concerning Coynage’ (1672 [undated]); Statement issued by the English Government in Response to Reports about large Amounts of Bullion exported from England by the East India Company (1674 [undated] ); ‘The Mystery of the new fashioned Goldsmiths or Bankers: their Rise, Growth, State, and Decay, discovered in a Merchant’s Letter to a Country Gent who desired to bind his Son Apprentice to a Goldsmith’ (1676 [undated]); Note of a Petition from London Goldsmiths to the House of Commons, complaining that the Exportation of large Quantities of Silver from England into France was placing an undue Burden upon them (9 April 1690); House of Commons Committee Report issued in Response to the Petition of the previous Month from the Working Goldsmiths of London concerning the Exportation of large Quantities of Silver from England to France and the undue Burden that this was placing upon Working Goldsmiths (8 May 1690); ‘Observations on the Bill against the Exportation of Gold and Silver, and melting down the Coin of the Realm’, delivered at the Bar of the House of Lords by a Group of prominent London Merchants (6 December 1690);Excerpt from the Parliamentary Diary of Narcissus Luttrell on the Debate in the House of Commons over a Bill for discouraging the Exportation of Bullion (30 December 1691);Sir Dudley North’s ‘Discourse of Coyned Money’ and ‘Postscript’, from the same Author’s Discourses upon Trade (1692 [undated]); Bank of England Charter (25 April 1694);Report to the House of Commons from the Committee appointed to consider Proposals for stemming both the Clipping of the Silver Coinage of England and the Exportation of Silver (8 January 1695); ‘Representation to the Lords Justices from the Treasury Lords on the Price of Guineas’, reporting that the high Price of Guineas in England has encouraged the Importation of large Quantities of Gold from abroad to the Loss of the Nation (3 July 1695);Resolutions put forward in the Report of the Committee of the whole House, laying the Foundation for the Great Recoinage (10 December 1695);A short Paper on Guineas written by John Locke at the Request of Treasury Commissioner Sir William Trumbull in Connection with the Treasury Report of the 3rd of July 1695 (1695 [undated] ); ‘An Act for Remedying the Ill State of the Coin of the Kingdom’ (17 January 1696); Resolution put forward in the Report of the Committee of the whole House, stating that no Guinea should pass for more than 28 Shillings (15 February 1696); ‘An Act for taking off the Obligation and Incouragement for Coining Guineas for a certaine Time therein mentioned’ (24 February 1696); ‘An Act to incourage the bringing Plate into the Mint to be Coined, and for the further Remedying the Ill State of the Coin of the Kingdom’ (10 April 1696); ‘An Act for Importing and Coining Guineas and Half-Guineas’ (23 October 1696); Correspondence of Isaac Newton, Warden of the Mint, dated from Jermin Street in Westminster, to John Locke (19 September 1698); Report of the Board of Trade (22 September 1698); Excerpts from Hopton Haynes’s ‘Brief Memoire relating to the Silver and Gold Coins of England, with an Account of the Corruption of the hammered Moneys; and of the Reform of the Late Grand Coynage at the Tower and the five County Mints in the years 1696, 1697, 1698, and 1699’ (c.1700); Report of Isaac Newton, Master of the Mint, to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury, concerning the high Value of French and Spanish Pistoles in England (20 January 1701); Report of Isaac Newton to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury, concerning edicts of the King of France relative to the Gold and Silver Coinage of France (28 September 1701); Report of Isaac Newton to Sidney Godolphin, Lord High Treasurer of England, concerning the Values of various foreign Gold and Silver Coins (7 July 1702); Excerpt from John Law’s famous tract Money and Trade Considered (1705 [undated]) 91]); Report of Sir Isaac Newton to the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury, concerning the Fineness of Gold Coins in Relation to the Trial Plate used in the Trial of the Pyx of 21 August 1710 (31 December 1710); Report of Sir Isaac Newton, Master of the Royal Mint, to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury, on the Price and Relationship of Gold to Silver and the Consequences for the Coinage of the Kingdom (21 September 1717); Royal Proclamation of King George I forbidding the Exchange of Guineas for more than 21s each and putting England on a bimetallic Standard (22 December 1717); Anonymous Communication to Sir Isaac Newton in Response to the Publication, on the previous Day, of Newton’s Report of the 21st of September to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury (31 December 1717); Memorandum containing Sir Isaac Newton’s Observations on the State of the Gold and Silver Coins (20 October 1718); Excerpts from the Correspondence of William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath and MP (1705–42), to James Craggs, Secretary of State for Southern Affairs (1717–21), concerning the State of the Gold Coin in France (22 March – 12 November 1720); Excerpts from John Conduitt’s Treatise ‘Observations upon the present State of our Gold and Silver Coins’ (1730 [undated]) 108]); Excerpt from Richard Cantillon’s Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General (c.1734); Excerpts from John Atkins’s Account of his Travels along the west Coast of Africa, in the West Indies and Brazil in the early eighteenth Century ([1735] c.1721); United States Coinage Act of 1792 (2 April 1792); Newspaper Account of a Council Decision to suspend Cash Payments by the Bank of England (27 February 1797); Newspaper Account of a Message of the King, read before the House of Lords by the Lord Chancellor on the preceding Day, suspending Cash Payments by the Bank of England (28 February 1797); Newspaper Account of the Suspension of Cash Payments by the Bank of England (28 February 1797); ‘Report, together with Minutes of Evidence, and Accounts, from the Select Committee on High Price of Gold Bullion’ (8 June 1810); ‘A Bill, intituled, an Act for making more effectual Provision for preventing the current Gold Coin of the Realm from being paid or accepted for a greater Value than the current Value of such Coin; for preventing any Note or Notes of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England from being received for any smaller Sum than the Sum therein specified; and for staying Proceedings upon any Distress by Tender of such Notes’ (9 July 1811); ‘A Bill, to continue and amend an Act of the Session of Parliament, for making more effectual Provision for preventing the current Gold Coin of the Realm from being paid or accepted for a greater Value than the current Value of such Coin, for preventing any Note or Bill of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England from being received for any smaller Sum than the Sum therein specified, and for staying Proceedings upon any Distress by Tender of such Notes; and to extend the same to Ireland’ (20 March 1812); ‘A Bill, to provide for the New Silver Coinage, and to regulate the Currency of the Gold and Silver Coin of this Realm’ (31 May 1816); ‘First Report from the Secret Committee on the Expediency of the Bank resuming Cash Payments’ (5 April 1819); ‘Proposed Resolutions [on the Expediency of the Bank resuming Cash Payments]’ (19 May 1819); ‘Representation, agreed upon the 20th of May 1819, by the Directors of the Bank of England and laid before the Chancellor of the Exchequer [on the Expediency of the Bank resuming Cash Payments]’ (21 May 1819); Bank of England Act, 1833: ‘An Act, for giving to the Corporation of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England certain Privileges, for a limited Period, under certain Conditions’ (29 August 1833); Coinage Act, 1834, United States: ‘An Act concerning the Gold Coins of the United States, and for other Purposes’ (27 June 1834); Foreign Coins Act, 1834, United States: ‘An Act regulating the Value of certain foreign Gold Coins within the United States’ (28 June 1834); Bank Charter Act, 1844: ‘An Act to regulate the Issue of Bank Notes, and for giving to the Governor and Company of the Bank of England certain Privileges for a limited Period’ (19 July 1844); ‘An Act to extend an Act of the Fifty-sixth year of King George the Third, for providing a new Silver Coinage, and for regulating the Currency of the Gold and Silver Coin of this Realm’ (13 July 1849); The Trial of the Pyx: ‘Statement of Proceedings at the Mint as to the Deposit of the Gold and Silver Coins in the Mint Pyx Boxes; and at Goldsmiths’ Hall, in the Assay of the Gold and Silver Pieces, constituting the Public Trial of the Pyx; by Henry W. Field, Queen’s Assay Master at Her Majesty’s Mint’ (6 February 1866); Standards of Weights, Measures, and Coinage Act, 1866: ‘An Act to amend the Acts relating to the Standard Weights and Measures and to the Standard Trial Pieces of the Coin of the Realm’ (6 August 1866); ‘Report from the Royal Commission on International Coinage; together with the Minutes of Evidence and Appendix’ (18 February 1868); ‘Report addressed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer by the Master of the Mint and Colonel Smith, late Master of the Calcutta Mint, on the Mintage necessary to cover the Expenses of Establishing and Maintaining the Gold Currency’ (28 June 1869); Coinage Act, 1870: ‘A Bill, to consolidate and amend the Law relating to the Coinage and Her Majesty’s Mint’ (10 February 1870); Coinage Act, 1873, United States: ‘An Act revising and amending the Laws relative to the Mints, Assay, Offices, and Coinage of the United States’ (12 February 1873); Specie Resumption Act, 1875, United States: ‘An Act to provide for the Resumption of Specie Payments’ (14 January 1875); ‘Report from the Select Committee on Depreciation of Silver; together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, and Appendix’ (5 July 1876); International Monetary Conference, 1878: ‘Report of the Commissioners appointed to represent Her Majesty’s Government at the Monetary Conference held in Paris in August 1878’ (27 November 1878); Coinage Act, 1884, United Kingdom: ‘A Bill, for amending the Coinage Act, 1870, so far as relates to Gold Coin and for making the necessary consequential Amendments in the Banking and Weights and Measures Acts’ (2 May 1884); The Monetary Convention of the 6th of November 1885, agreed upon by the Delegates of the Latin Monetary Union (6 November 1885); ‘Message from the President of the United States [Grover Cleveland], transmitting, in response to a Senate Resolution of December 9, 1885, a Report of the Secretary of State, with Information relative to Gold and Silver Coinage in Europe’ (7 January 1886); Letter from Mr Alfred de Rothschild to the Chairman of the Gold and Silver Commission: ‘Second Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the recent Changes in the relative Values of the precious Metals; with Minutes of Evidence and Appendices’ (30 January 1888); Gold and Silver Commission: Excerpts from the ‘Final Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the recent Changes in the relative Values of the Precious Metals; with Minutes of Evidence and Appendices’ (October 1888); Coinage Act, 1889: ‘A Bill, to amend the Coinage Act, 1870, as respects Light Gold Coins’ (9 July 1889); Coinage Act, 1889: ‘A Bill, to amend the Coinage Act, 1870, as respects Light Gold Coins’ (30 August 1889); William Jennings Bryan’s ‘Cross of Gold’ Speech, delivered to the Democratic National Convention at Chicago, Illinois (9 July 1896); Gold Standard Act, 1900, United States: ‘An Act to define and fix the Standard of Value, to maintain the Parity of all Forms of Money issued or coined by the United States, to refund the public Debt, and for other Purposes’ (14 March 1900); Currency and Bank Notes Act, 1914: ‘A Bill, to authorise the Issue of Currency Notes, and to make Provision with Respect to the Note Issue of Banks’ (6 August 1914); ‘A Bill, to amend the Currency and Bank Notes Act, 1914’, United Kingdom (25 August 1914); Interim Report of the Cunliffe Committee, 1918: Report on Currency and Foreign Exchanges after the War (15 August 1918); The Treaty of Versailles (28 June 1919); Gold and Silver (Export Control) Act, 1920, United Kingdom: ‘A Bill, to control the Exportation of Gold and Silver Coin and Bullion, and to prohibit the Melting or improper Use of Gold and Silver Coin’ (4 November 1920); National Bank Law, Switzerland (7 April 1921); Bank Law, Germany (30 August 1924); Winston Churchill’s 1925 Budget Speech (28 April 1925); Gold Standard Act, 1925, United Kingdom: ‘A Bill, to facilitate the Return to a Gold Standard and for Purposes connected therewith’ (28 April 1925); Decree-Law Creating the Central Bank of Chile (21 August 1925); Monetary Law, France (25 June 1928); Amendment to the National Bank Law, Switzerland (20 December 1929); Paper issued by the Statistical Section of the Bank of England, entitled ‘Terms on which the Bank of England buys Bar Gold’ (29 March 1930); Macmillan Committee Report, 1931: Committee on Finance and Industry (June 1931); Confidential Telegram from the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, concerning the Decision of the United Kingdom to go off the Gold Standard (20 September 1931); Philip Snowden’s Speech to the House of Commons (21 September 1931); Gold Standard (Amendment) Act, 1931, United Kingdom: ‘A Bill, to suspend the Operation of Sub-section (2) of Section One of the Gold Standard Act, 1925, and for Purposes connected therewith’ (21 September 1931); Bank of England Report entitled ‘The Suspension of the Gold Standard in Great Britain and its Effect on the Countries of Europe’ (21 January 1932); Resolution of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements relating to the Gold Standard (11 July 1932); Presidential Proclamation (No. 2039) of Franklin D. Roosevelt prohibiting Gold and Silver Exports and Foreign Exchange Transactions (6 March 1933); Recommendation of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Congress for Legislation to control the Resumption of Banking (9 March 1933); Presidential Proclamation (No. 2040) of Franklin D. Roosevelt extending the Prohibition of Gold and Silver Exports and Foreign Exchange Transactions (9 March 1933); Executive Order (No. 6073) of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt reopening the Banks but maintaining the Prohibition on Gold Exports and Foreign Exchange Transactions (10 March 1933); Executive Order (No. 6102) of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt prohibiting the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates, and requiring them to be delivered to the Federal Reserve Bank (5 April 1933); Report of A. P. L. Gordon, with Moy, Davies, Smith, Vandervell & Co., 20 Copthall Avenue, London EC2, concerning the Revival of the AmericanExport Embargo on Gold, entitled ‘Gold, Dollars and Markets’, marked ‘For Clients and Correspondents only’ (19 April 1933); Executive Order (No. 6111) of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt concerning Controls on Gold Exports and Transactions in Foreign Exchange (20 April 1933); Excerpt from United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s second ‘Fireside Chat’ of 1933: ‘What we have been doing and what we are planning to do’ (7 May 1933); Emergency Farm Mortgage Act, 1933 (12 May 1933); Executive Order (No. 6260) of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt concerning Controls on Gold Exports and Transactions in Foreign Exchange (28 August 1933); Recommendation of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Congress for Legislation to improve the financial and monetary System (15 January 1934); Gold Reserve Act of 1934: ‘An Act to protect the Currency System of the United States, to provide for the better Use of the monetary Gold Stock of the United States, and for other Purposes’ (30 January 1934); Presidential Proclamation (No. 2072) of Franklin D. Roosevelt fixing the Gold Value, by Weight, of the United States Dollar, making the Dollar convertible to Gold at the new Price of $35.00 per Ounce (31 January 1934); White House Statement on the Presidential Proclamation of Franklin D. Roosevelt fixing the Gold Value, by Weight, of the United States Dollar (31 January 1934); Press Release communicating a Resolution of the Bank for International Settlements relative to the Restoration of the Gold Standard (14 May 1934); Message of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Congress on Silver Policy (22 May 1934); Presidential Proclamation (No. 2092) of Franklin D. Roosevelt to facilitate the Coinage of Silver (9 August 1934); Tripartite Agreement between the United States, France and the United Kingdom on international monetary Cooperation (25 September – 13 October 1936); Swiss Federal Council Decree (27 September 1936); Memorandum to the Governor of the Bank of England concerning the Devaluation of the Italian Lira by forty per cent (5 October 1936); Report on the Devaluation of the Italian Lira, issued by the Overseas and Foreign Department (7 October 1936); Bank of England Memorandum on the Devaluation of the French Franc (7 October 1936); Reuters News Wire Report, from Belgrade, on the likely Adjustment of the Yugoslav Dinar (7 October 1936); Declaration of the Swiss Government, through the Federal Finance and Customs Department, and the National Bank of Switzerland regarding the Purchase and Sale of Gold (28 October 1936); Table of Currency Devaluations in the United States and Europe following the Devaluation of the Pound in 1931 (2 November 1936); Reports of Machinery and Technical Transport Ltd., International Shipping and Forwarding Agents, ‘Ling House’, South Street, Finsbury Pavement, London EC2, to the Bank of England, Foreign Exchange Department, for the attention of Mr Bolton, with Attachments, concerning Movements in Gold (1937–9); Letter of N. M. Rothschild & Sons, giving the Price of Gold at the Time of the Morning Fixing, to the Chief Cashier of the Bank of England, on Letterhead of the Royal Mint Refinery, New Court, St Swithin’s Lane, London EC4 (31 August 1939); Bank of England Memorandum, consisting of a Report on the Distribution of Gold Reserves of Countries occupied by Germany to determine the Quantity that may have fallen into German Hands (26 June 1940); Bank of England Memorandum, giving Estimates of the Amount of Gold from Occupied Countries that may have fallen into German Hands (26 June 1940); Bank of England Memorandum, giving updated Estimates of French, Belgian and Polish Gold Holdings at the Time of the German Occupation (19 July 1940); Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund (22 July 1944); Exchange Control Act, 1947, United Kingdom: ‘An Act to confer Powers, and impose Duties and Restrictions, in Relation to Gold, Currency, Payments, Securities, Debts, and the Import, Export, Transfer and Settlement of Property, and for Purposes connected with the Matters aforesaid’ (11 March 1947); Memoranda concerning new Gold Prices as a Consequence of the Devaluation of Sterling (19 September 1949); Memorandum concerning the Case of Emile Katz, seen as a Contravention of the Statute stipulated in the Exchange Control Act of 1947 prohibiting the private Ownership of Gold (1 November 1949); Report entitled ‘The London Gold Market’ (9 November 1953); Press Release from H. M. Treasury, concerning the Reopening of the London Gold Market for the first Time since the Outbreak of the Second World War (19 March 1954); Correspondence of R. A. O. Bridge, Bank of England, to Mr Joseph J. Moran, Vice President, Bank of Manhattan Co., 40 Wall Street, New York, concerning the Reopening of the London Gold Market (20 March 1954); Excerpt from a Press Conference of French President Charles de Gaulle at the Palais de l’Élysée calling for the Return of a ‘Gold Exchange Standard’ (4 February 1965); The London Gold Market and the Devaluation of Sterling (12 June 1965); United Kingdom, Treasury: Meeting Notes, labelled ‘top secret’, including Considerations about the Effects of the planned Devaluation of the Pound Sterling on the London Gold Market (16 June 1965); Statement by Secretary of the Treasury Henry H. Fowler, 30 January 1968, before the Senate Banking and Currency Committee, on Legislation to remove the Gold Cover (30 January 1968); Memoranda on the Gold Pool by Walt Rostow, Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, to President Johnson (March 1968); Statement by Secretary of the Treasury Henry H. Fowler and Chairman William M. Martin of the Federal Reserve Board (14 March 1968); H.M. Treasury Press Statement on the London Gold Market (15 March 1968); Washington Communique (17 March 1968); Notice instructing Authorised Dealers in Gold not to transact in Gold before 1 April 1968 (18 March 1968); Instructions to Authorised Dealers in Gold concerning the scheduled Reopening of the London Gold Market on 1 April 1968 (29 March 1968); Address by US President Nixon to the Nation outlining a New Economic Policy ‘The Challenge of Peace’ (15 August 1971); Remarks by US President Richard Nixon announcing a Monetary Agreement following a Meeting of the Group of Ten (18 December 1971); Smithsonian Agreement of the Group of Ten (December 1971); Par Value Modification Act (31 March 1972); Summary of Regulations on Gold currently in Force in European Countries (2 May 1972); An Act to amend the Par Value Modification Act (21 September 1973); The Second Amendment to the IMF Articles (30 April 1976); The United States Gold Commission, 1982 (31 March 1982); The Washington Agreement on Gold (26 September 1999); Appendix: Second Central Bank Gold Agreement: Joint Statement on Gold (8 March 2004)
Reviews
'Editor Duckenfield has compiled a useful collection of documents on the history of the gold standard... This is a convenient reference and starting point for those interested in the monetary history of gold or, more generally, the history of the international monetary system. Summing up: recommended.'
– R Grossman, CHOICE
'the Duckenfield volume in a useful addition to collections of historical documents on gold.'
– Laurence H Officer, EH.NET