America's First Paper Currency: The History of Money, America

Video

Where did paper money come from? Despite it seeming like a modern invention, its origins go back to Ancient China. And, despite it now being hard to think of a world without paper money, in 1968, Americans could still redeem their U.S. bills for silver, and international residents could convert their U.S. dollar bills into gold up until 1971. What led to the invention of paper money and the fiat standard where money has value because government says so? These videos will examine how paper money developed in ancient times.

We have a 5-part series with a video to be released each week: this current video will go through the evolution of paper money in the early United States. The U.S. didn’t exist in the 1600s; it was owned by the British, French and Spanish empires. However, overtime the colonies gained independence and began resenting their overlords. One notable event was the Stamp Act in 1765 where Britain wanted to tax the U.S. for printing paper money. This dispute eventually led to the American Revolution.

Paper money helped the U.S. win the revolutionary war. As the U.S. continued to evolve, paper money would play a larger role in the U.S. economy. This video, also, shows how the U.S. economy grew during the heart of the gold standard (1873-1914). We show that when there is too little gold, prices fall; and, when there is too much gold, prices rise.