paper money was first issued in the usa in 1690.
when was paper money first issued in the usa?
1690
in 1690, the massachusetts bay colony became the first to issue paper money in what would become the united states, but soon others began printing their own money as well. the demand for currency in the colonies was due to the scarcity of coins, which had been the primary means of trade. colonies' paper currencies were used to pay for their expenses, as well as a means to lend money to the colonies' citizens. paper money quickly became the primary means of exchange within each colony, and it even began to be used in financial transactions with other colonies. however, some of the currencies were not redeemable in gold or silver, which caused them to depreciate. with the currency act of 1751, the british parliament limited the ability of the new england colonies to issue fiat paper currency. under the 1751 act, the new england colonial governments could make paper money legal tender for the payment of public debts (such as taxes), and could issue bills of credit as a tool of government finance, but barred the use of paper money as legal tender for private debts. under continued pressure from the british merchant-creditors who disliked being paid in depreciated paper currency, the subsequent currency act of 1764 completely banned the issuance of bills of credit (paper money) throughout the colonies. colonial governments used workarounds to accept paper notes as payment for taxes and pressured parliament to repeal the prohibition on paper money as legal tender for public debts, which parliament ultimately did in 1773.
history of massachusetts
before the establishment of the ming dynasty the mongol yuan dynasty had suffered from a severe case of hyperinflation which made the paper money issued by them worthless. under the reign of the yuan dynasty copper cash coins remained in circulation with the inscriptions zhida tongbao (至大通寶), dayuan tongbao (大元通寶), and zhizheng tongbao (至正通寶) forming the majority of the circulating issues and "strings of cash coins" remaining a currency unit. silver then started to occupy a paramount place in the mongol economy and was supplemented by government issued paper money. under the reign of kublai khan the zhongtong jiaochao (中統交鈔) was issued whose value was based on the fabric silk. in the year 1271 the zhiyuan baochao (至元寶鈔) was issued which was supplemented with the silver-based zhida yinchao (至大銀鈔), but these circulated only for a year. the final series of paper money issued by the government of the yuan dynasty from 1350 were the zhizheng jiaochao (至正交鈔). a major difference between how paper money was used under the mongols and under the song dynasty was that, in certain regions of the yuan dynasty, paper notes were the only acceptable form of currency and could not be exchanged in either copper cash coins or silver sycees. exchanging paper money into copper or silver was known as "duìxiàn" (兌現, "convert into specie") which was the main reason why earlier forms of paper money were deemed reliable. as these regions were completely dependent on paper money inflation hit them more severely as their notes could not be converted into a currency based on any intrinsic value, for this reason the mongols allowed their subjects to continue using copper-alloy cash coins and issued new ones every now and then. during the last few decades of the yuan dynasty the inflation caused people to lose their trust in paper money and barter became the most common means of exchange.
da ming baochao