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Private Enterprise and Popular Coinage: Birmingham Button Makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of Modern Coinage, 1775-1821
By George Selgin
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Co-published with the University of Michigan Press
Table of Contents
- Foreword by Charles Goodhart
Preface
Prologue
Chapter 1 / Britain’s Big Problem
Chapter 2 / Druids, Willeys, and Beehives
Chapter 3 / Soho!
Chapter 4 / The People’s Money
Chapter 5 / The Boulton Copper
Chapter 6 / Their Last Bow
Chapter 7 / Prerogative Regained
Chapter 8 / Steam, Hot Air, and Small Change
Chapter 9 / Conclusion
Epilogue
Appendix
Sources
Index
Praise for Good Money
“In lucid, enjoyable, often humorous language, Selgin takes us from the ‘dark satanic mills’ to the backstreet haunts of the eighteenth-century counterfeiter and the private, legitimate mints, set up to address a problem the Royal Mint could or would not—the production of safe small change for the people. His cast of characters is large and auspicious: Thomas Williams, James Watt, John Westwood, and Matthew Boulton. And Selgin’s understanding of eighteenth-century economic theory and practice is absolute, allowing him to write with verve and clarity.”
—Richard Doty, Curator of Numismatics, Smithsonian Institution
“George Selgin’s story of how private enterprise solved a monetary problem that threatened seriously to retard the Industrial Revolution is a splendid piece of historical analysis. He has done an incredible job of unearthing all of the details of what went on in Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. It is a fine example of historical research.”
—Milton Friedman, Recipient of the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics
“George Selgin reveals the personalities and schemes intimately involved in creating the modern monetary system.”
—Jack Weatherford, DeWitt Wallace Professor of Anthropology, Macalester College
“Good Money has a splendid mixture of monetary economics, numismatics and industrial history—with a particular focus on the central role of Birmingham in the United Kingdom's industrial revolution. While the main focus of the book, the private sector provision of copper coins in the UK, 1787-1817, may appear quite specialized, the lessons that may be drawn from it, for example about the roles of the public and private sectors in the provision of money, are much more general and wider in scope. George Selgin demonstrates a remarkable breadth and depth of scholarship in this multi-discipline work. I heartedly recommend it.”
—Charles A. E. Goodhart, Norman Sosnow Professor of Banking and Finance, London School of Economics
“Good Money is a pleasure to read, and offers economic and historical scholarship of the highest quality.”
—Tyler Cowen, Director of the James Buchanan Center at George Mason University
“Good Money tells the riveting, forgotten, story of 18th century UK coinage: of how the Royal Mint failed to provide the small change needed to get the Industrial Revolution moving, and of how the private sector stepped in to save the day. The tale George Selgin tells is highly entertaining and challenges many of our strongest preconceptions, not just about the 18th century, but about money and coinage in general. He paints a lively and colorful picture, and the characters in his story are worthy of Hogarth himself—and, indeed, figured in many of his best caricatures. This book is an outstanding achievement, reminiscent of the best in popular history and science.”
—Kevin Dowd, Professor of Economics, University of Nottingham; co-editor, Money and the Nation State
“Good Money a major piece of work that will add greatly to our historical knowledge about coining and currency and which will bring to the fore the importance of Birmingham in the movement towards a proper currency.”
—Carl Chinn, Professor of Community History at the University of Birmingham and editor of Carl Chinn’s Brummagem Magazine
“Good Money is an impressive work of historical scholarship, informed by economics. Without polemics, it offers valuable insights into bureaucracy, innovation, and entrepreneurship. An engaging style manages to make what might seem a dull topic fascinating. George Selgin is one of the few economists I know of who take pains to make their writing not only correct but attractive, and his conversational style helps make reading the book a pleasure. My reaction to Good Money is one of great admiration.”
—Leland B. Yeager, Ludwig von Mises Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at Auburn University and Paul Goodloe McIntire Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Virginia
“Good Money is a success on every level. Selgin is a better economist than most, and a better writer than most fiction writers. This is a fascinating story, or set of stories, and Selgin is a superb storyteller. The reader will feel transported back in time—especially on the ‘pub crawl’ through Birmingham towards the end of the book. This is entertaining history with many lessons for today. Savor it.”
—Bruce J. Caldwell, Rosenthal Excellence Professor of Economics at University of North Carolina at Greensboro and general editor, The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek
“Good Money challenges conventional wisdom about a subject that has recently attracted renewed attention from economists and economic historians, namely the problems that Britain encountered with its small denomination coinage in the early years of the industrial revolution. That there were indeed such problems is both well known and true; but it is also well known that the problem’s solution was found in the application of steam power to their minting, under the auspices of Matthew Boulton—the partner of no less a figure than James Watt himself—and this, Selgin argues, probably isn’t true. Thus he attacks a much-cherished myth about the history of money, and about the benevolent role played in its development by a well-established hero of the Industrial Revolution as well. Selgin suggests that the main obstacle to sound coinage in late 18th century Britain was not the absence of adequate technology, but the incompetence of the Royal Mint, and that this obstacle was well on its way to being overcome by competition from private mints when Boulton’s invention came along. No doubt Selgin’s new work will raise the hackles of those who persist in downplaying the role of competition in monetary affairs, but his research has been thorough, and his story is entertainingly told. More important, there is much of general importance about the nature of money, and the role that competition can play in providing it, to be learned from engaging with his arguments, even, perhaps particularly, for those who will at first be reluctant to accept them.”
—David E. W. Laidler, Bank of Montreal Professor at the University of Western Ontario and author of Taking Money Seriously
“I anxiously await the publication of Good Money. Taking a totally fresh approach to not only the examination of the British token coinage, but also the role of money as a medium of exchange, this is a work that will delight token collectors and general numismatists alike. Good Money is no stale academic text—I was charmed by the author's ‘Ramble 'Round Old Birmingham’ as surely as I was enlightened throughout by his meticulous research. Numismatists are readers and researchers at heart and I've no doubt that Good Money will meet with an enthusiastic response within our community."
—Harold Welch, Vice President, Conder Token Collector's Club
“George Selgin has written a fine book. His writing is a pleasure to read, and the story he tells is truly engrossing.”
—James Grant, author of Money of the Mind: Borrowing and Lending in America from the Civil War to Michael Milken
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