Timeline
Introduction
Chapter 1 Emblems of Liberty
Chapter 2 The Ghost of a Dollar
Chapter 3 Minting Mexico’s Independence
Chapter 4 North America’s Third Republic
Chapter 5 Buying Mexico
Chapter 6 Border Coppers
Chapter 7 Gold Recklessness
Chapter 8 Defending the Republics
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Glossary
Bibliography
Tatiana Seijas is associate professor of history at The
Pennsylvania State University.
Jake Frederick is associate professor of history at Lawrence
University.
This is an original work that does a good job of connecting complex
monetary and banking processes with the crucial political events of
the period.
*American Historical Review*
This volume impresses with its scope and its timeliness and offers
the following avenues for further research. . . It offers no
shortage of insight to issues of national identity and territory
for scholars interested more in the politics than in the
geography.
*International Studies Review*
The authors contend that Spanish pieces of eight were the first
global currency in 1535 and that Spanish silver coinage minted in
the New World became the model for currency in the emerging
republics of Mexico and the US. A single piece of eight was worth
eight Spanish reales and required a standard silver content,
coinage mints, banks, and treasury departments to flourish.
Merchants in both South America and North America valued these
coins (called ‘Spanish milled dollars’ in the British colonies)
above all other currencies. Hard currency from anywhere was scarce
in Colonial America, both South and North; merchants relied on
credit, local tokens, and barter to conduct business. Mexico and
the US had similar currency problems in the Colonial era after they
each achieved independence. Eight profiles of key individuals
illustrate the establishment of currency stability in both
countries: Congressman John Page, merchant Stephen Girard, José
Esteva (Mexican treasurer), President Sam Houston (Texas ),
President López de Santa Anna (Mexico), boundary commissioner John
Bartlett, Robert Patterson (director, US Mint), and Emperor
Maximilian (Mexico). Concise and pithy, this engaging volume is
recommended for students of economic and financial history.
Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and
above.
*CHOICE*
The monetary histories of the United States and Mexico have been
entwined from the start. By highlighting key personalities and
simplifying the complex global history of hard cash, Seijas
and Frederick demonstrate why ready money mattered so much for
these fledgling, ex-colonial nations even as their paths diverged.
Many readers will be surprised to discover who depended on whom for
silver currency, and for how long. Spanish Dollars and Sister
Republics is transnational history at its best.
*Kris Lane, Tulane University*
Seijas and Frederick have written an important book about a largely
ignored subject that’s nevertheless fundamental to US, Mexican, and
borderlands histories: money. The currencies of both countries had
their roots in Spanish tradition, and when it came to creating
symbols representative of freedom, finding enough specie for coins,
or negotiating the terms of credit and debt, the early United
States and Mexico faced financial challenges that were more similar
than different. Their focus on shared histories is refreshing given
today’s rhetoric of difference and division.
*Geraldo Cadava, Northwestern University*
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