FOR ANOTHER CURRENCY: ANTI-BULLIONIST NETWORKS DURING THE PERIOD OF INCONVERTIBILITY IN BRITAIN (1797-1821)

• Grant number: 24/22451-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: April 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Economics
• Principal Investigator: Mauricio Chalfin Coutinho
• Grantee: Julia Fleider Marchevsky
• Host Institution: Instituto de Economia (IE). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Between 1797 and 1821, the British government allowed the Bank of England to suspend the conversion of its bank notes into metallic currency. During the period in which this restriction was in force, the basis of the British monetary system became a non-convertible paper issued by a bank. In this context, one of the most significant monetary debates emerged, which became known as the Bullion Debate. On the one hand, the so-called bullionists argued that inconvertibility had allowed the Bank of England to issue too many notes, devaluating the pound in relation to the gold bullion. On the other hand, the anti-bullionists claimed in different ways that the Bank of England's issues were not responsible for the rise in the price of gold. As a result of the common emphasis in the history of economic thought on the great classical authors, most studies on the Bullion Debate focus mainly on those linked to the bulionist position, especially renowned authors such as David Ricardo and Henry Thornton. This bias has led to a certain neglect of anti-bullionist authors. Consequently, academic literature ends up examining the period from the perspective of the victory of the gold standard and loses sight of the other projects and ideas in dispute at the time. Considering this major gap, the main objective of this research is to examine the ideas, networks, strategies and political measures behind important anti-bulionists and thus build an original interpretation with new elements of this important monetary controversy.