Promise to Pay: The Politics and Power of Money in Early America

An incisive account of the crucial role money played in the formation and development of British North America.

Promise to Pay follows America’s first paper money—the “bills of credit” of British North America—from its seventeenth-century origins as a means of war finance to its pivotal role in catalyzing the American Revolution. Katie A. Moore combs through treasury records, account books, and the bills themselves to tell a new story of money’s origins that challenges economic orthodoxy a...