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Currency policies and the nature of ...

Priest, Claire.

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Currency policies and the nature of litigation in colonial New England.

Record Type:	Electronic resources : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	Currency policies and the nature of litigation in colonial New England./
Author:	Priest, Claire.
Description:	223 p.
Notes:	Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 64-03, Section: A, page: 1052.
Contained By:	Dissertation Abstracts International64-03A.
Subject:	Law. -

Currency policies and the nature of litigation in colonial New England.
Priest, Claire.

Currency policies and the nature of litigation in colonial New England. - 223 p.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 64-03, Section: A, page: 1052.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Yale University, 2003.

This Dissertation presents a new interpretation of the relation of law to economic development in colonial New England. Prior legal historical scholarship has portrayed colonial law and economy as functioning in a tight, mutually reinforcing, and evolving relationship in the context of economic growth. This Dissertation develops a different account by focusing on the interrelationship of colonial governments' paper money policies, the nature of contractual relations, and the quantity of litigation. The issuance of paper money, in a society largely operating without coins or other cash, had the potential to lead to greater commercialization, specialization, and less household subsistence, but these ambitions were not realized because of unstable government currency policies. Each colony's annual determination of the paper currency in circulation reflected a struggle within colonial assemblies, which faced pressure from part of the public—often debtors—to issue paper money in greater volume, and conflicting pressure from English and New England merchants who desired a stable currency of high value to satisfy English import debts. The tensions between the elected, representative assemblies and the English—representatives of a foreign sovereign promoting a mercantilist agenda—led to policies that created disastrous uncertainty.Subjects--Topical Terms:

600858
Law.

Currency policies and the nature of litigation in colonial New England.
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100 1 $a Priest, Claire. $3 1944380
245 1 0 $a Currency policies and the nature of litigation in colonial New England.
300 $a 223 p.
500 $a Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 64-03, Section: A, page: 1052.
500 $a Director: Robert W. Gordon.
502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.)--Yale University, 2003.
520 $a This Dissertation presents a new interpretation of the relation of law to economic development in colonial New England. Prior legal historical scholarship has portrayed colonial law and economy as functioning in a tight, mutually reinforcing, and evolving relationship in the context of economic growth. This Dissertation develops a different account by focusing on the interrelationship of colonial governments' paper money policies, the nature of contractual relations, and the quantity of litigation. The issuance of paper money, in a society largely operating without coins or other cash, had the potential to lead to greater commercialization, specialization, and less household subsistence, but these ambitions were not realized because of unstable government currency policies. Each colony's annual determination of the paper currency in circulation reflected a struggle within colonial assemblies, which faced pressure from part of the public—often debtors—to issue paper money in greater volume, and conflicting pressure from English and New England merchants who desired a stable currency of high value to satisfy English import debts. The tensions between the elected, representative assemblies and the English—representatives of a foreign sovereign promoting a mercantilist agenda—led to policies that created disastrous uncertainty.
520 $a This Dissertation presents data revealing that the periods of greatest currency instability coincided directly with periods of exponentially increasing litigation. Indeed, litigation in the first half of the eighteenth century in New England was linked far more closely to economic recession and uncertainty than to an expanding economy and more available credit. Moreover, contemporary pamphlets concerning Massachusetts's currency policies show that colonial citizens were frustrated by the swamping of the courts with debt-related litigation during periods of currency instability, with excessive court fees, and with judges' dogged enforcement of the common-law principle of nominalism—allowing debtors to satisfy their debts with payment in nominal, not real, values of the debts. It empirically analyzes the nature of litigation and fees in the colonial courts and concludes that the court system's role in promoting economic development is far more problematic than has been depicted in prior scholarship.
590 $a School code: 0265.
650 4 $a Law. $3 600858
650 4 $a History, United States. $3 1017393
650 4 $a Economics, History. $3 1017418
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710 2 0 $a Yale University. $3 515640
773 0 $t Dissertation Abstracts International $g 64-03A.
790 1 0 $a Gordon, Robert W., $e advisor
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791 $a Ph.D.
792 $a 2003