The Rise and Fall of the Gold Standard in the United States

Abstract

The “money question” — which is to say, the question concerning the proper meaning of a “standard” U.S. dollar — was hotly contested throughout most of U.S. history, and partly for this reason a gold standard that was both official and functioning was in effect only for a period comprising less than a quarter of the full span of the U.S. history, surrounded by longer periods during which the dollar was either a bimetallic (gold or silver) or a fiat unit. This brief review of the history of the gold standard in the U.S. explains both how the standard came into being, despite not having been present at the country’s inception, and of how it eventually came to an end.

Keywords: gold standard, gold exchange standrad, bimetallism, Bretton Woods, U.S. dollar

JEL Classification: E42, N20, N24