The Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman once noted that wars have provided laboratories to examine the behavior of money, prices, and income (Friedman, 1952). The Confederate experience during the American Civil War is no exception. Between January 1861 and April 1865, the Lerner Commodity Price Index of leading cities in the Eastern Confederacy increased from 100 to over 9000. Price inflation in the South during the Civil War ranks second only to the American Revolution in U.S. history.
A gold dollar in 1861 was 1/20th of an ounce. So, for a Confederate dollar price of $40 for one gold dollar would
indicate a gold ounce in Confederate money was $800.
http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/weidenmier.finance.confederacy.us
Charleston Voice
Read all the other articles published by Charleston Voice
This article is brought to you by the Charleston Voice E-mail List. To subscribe FREE to the distribution list, please send an email to the author with “SUBSCRIBE' in the subject line.
