The Hidden History of the US Greenback
Executive Summary
- The greenback was debt-free money issued during the US Civil War and was critical for the North.
- It is nearly impossible to find coverage of the greenback in mainstream economics.
Introduction
Abraham Lincoln created the Greenback and wanted the US government to issue its own money, an idea by Richard Taylor. As Lincoln said
“The Government should create, issue and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but it is the Government’s greatest creative opportunity.”
Lincoln allowed passage of the National Bank Act, which allowed private banks to create, which Lincoln opposed and would have likely reversed. John Wilks Booth was put up to assassinate Lincoln by private banking interests as retaliation. This was to both re-establish a private central bank and put the US on the gold standard.
This quote is from German Chancellor Otto Von Bismark after Lincoln’s assassination
“The death of Lincoln was a disaster for Christendom. There was no man in the United States great enough to wear his boots. I fear that foreign bankers with their craftiness and tortuous tricks will entirely control the exuberant riches of America, and use it systematically to corrupt modern civilization. They will not hesitate to plunge the whole of Christendom into wars and chaos in order that the earth should become their inheritance.”
Source: The Money Masters
http://www.themoneymasters.com/
The Greenbacks not only funded the North in the Civil War but the Transcontinental Railroad. The Greenback helped the North, but eventually, the North gave into private banking interests, as is explained in the following quotation.
“In the North, neither greenbacks, taxes, nor war bonds were enough to finance the war. So a national banking system was created to convert government bonds into fiat money, and the people lost over half of their monetary assets to the hidden tax of inflation. In the South, printing presses accomplished the same effect, and the monetary loss was total.”