Charles A. Beard Quotes
In primitive society, man produced directly for the satisfaction of his own wants, but with the development of society came differentiation of function; exchange and barter arose, various trades sprang up, and with the necessity of commercial intercourse came the invention of money.
Beard, Charles A. The Industrial Revolution. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1901.
All money has based on the Gold Standard then. But the economic output of the American colonies was increasing rapidly. If the money supply stays fixed, there is a shortage of money and this then inhibits further growth, Franklin realized this and called for an increase in the money supply. He was only 23 years old when he wrote this essay and had these insights.
This is the first major history of banks written in the United States.
Charles Austin Beard was an American historian who wrote primarily during the first half of the 20th century. A history professor at Columbia University, Beard's influence is primarily due to his publications in the fields of history and political science. His works included a radical re-evaluation of the Founding Fathers of the United States, whom he believed to be more motivated by economics than by philosophical principles. Beard's most influential book, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (1913), has been the subject of great controversy ever since its publication. While it has been frequently criticized for its methodology and conclusions, it was responsible for a wide-ranging reinterpretation of American history of the founding era. He was also the co-author with his wife, Mary Beard, of The Rise of American Civilization (1927), which had a major influence on American historians.
