The Founders and Finance: How Hamilton, Gallatin, and Other Immigrants Forged a New Economy

McCraw, Thomas K.

ISBN 10: 0674066928 / ISBN 13: 9780674066922

Editore: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press, 2012

Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Codice articolo 00078286860

Riassunto:

In 1776 the United States government started out on a shoestring and quickly went bankrupt fighting its War of Independence against Britain. At the war’s end, the national government owed tremendous sums to foreign creditors and its own citizens. But lacking the power to tax, it had no means to repay them. The Founders and Finance is the first book to tell the story of how foreign-born financial specialists—immigrants—solved the fiscal crisis and set the United States on a path to long-term economic success.

Pulitzer Prize–winning author Thomas K. McCraw analyzes the skills and worldliness of Alexander Hamilton (from the Danish Virgin Islands), Albert Gallatin (from the Republic of Geneva), and other immigrant founders who guided the nation to prosperity. Their expertise with liquid capital far exceeded that of native-born plantation owners Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, who well understood the management of land and slaves but had only a vague knowledge of financial instruments—currencies, stocks, and bonds. The very rootlessness of America’s immigrant leaders gave them a better understanding of money, credit, and banks, and the way each could be made to serve the public good.

The remarkable financial innovations designed by Hamilton, Gallatin, and other immigrants enabled the United States to control its debts, to pay for the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, and—barely—to fight the War of 1812, which preserved the nation’s hard-won independence from Britain.

Recensione: McCraw sheds light on personalities and policies in this overview of the development of early American finance. The newly independent United States 'had long been bankrupt'; both the fledgling national government and the states were in hock for the War of Independence... Hamilton's decisive advocacy of a national bank and assumption of state war debts laid the basis for economic expansion and cemented the dominance of federal power. McCraw then turns to Gallatin's ascendancy in Congress, where in 1796 he denounced the growth in the national debt and decried high military spending. Starting with the still-resonant contrast between the 'big government' Hamilton and 'small government' Gallatin, McCraw's wealth of historical data should interest any lay historian, particularly when he presents the many 'what if's.' Publishers Weekly, 6th August 2012

"Well told by McCraw are the familiar stories of Hamilton's consolidation and funding of the public debt, of his incessant fighting with Thomas Jefferson, and of his final duel with Aaron Burr...McCraw shows just how different was Jefferson's party from the one doing business under the Republican banner today." --James Grant, Wall Street Journal, 2nd November 2012

Dati bibliografici

Titolo: The Founders and Finance: How Hamilton, ...
Casa editrice: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
Data di pubblicazione: 2012
Legatura: Rilegato
Condizione: Good