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On the podcast The Gist, @pescami almost got to a key point in his interview with @jacobgoldstein about his book, "Money": Our framework for economic politics doesn't apply to much 19th-century U.S. history. The "left" of Andrew Jackson of was pro-gold & laissez-faire. Why?
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Early corporations were considered government intervention in the economy. They were seen as granting "special privileges" to the already wealthy—sometimes including legal monopolies. For that reason, Adam Smith himself had condemned corporations as a "species of monopoly."
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Those who favored corporations thought government had to actively foster economic development. At first, states chartered them one-by-one, usually for the well-connected. Serving Vice President Daniel Tompkins got a charter for a Staten Island turnpike—plus a ferry monopoly.
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The "leftists" who backed Jackson were enraged at this unfair boost for the already wealthy. It's in this context that banks & paper money came under fire. They saw these artificial devices of commerce as a plot to rip off the people. The BUS was simply the worst example.
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Government action seemed to only to help the rich. In a young economy with no big business, the idea that the little guy could rise & succeed in a fair fight seemed plausible. Our idea that
government action = leftist
free enterprise = rightist
does not apply to that time.
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government action = leftist
free enterprise = rightist
does not apply to that time.
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Oddly, Jacksonian beliefs had a momentum that carried them forward past the point when they make sense to us now. When the first federal currency, the greenback, was issued in the Civil War, it took a third party to champion monetary expansion. Democrats were uneasy with it.
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In the 1860s, a new debate emerged around new, truly gigantic businesses that clearly acted in private interests, not the public interest that supposedly drove early corporations. But not until 1896 did the Democratic Party fully abandon gold—the populism of a bygone age.
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Postscript: Great interview, though. As @jacobgoldstein knows, money is fascinating. And yes, the U.S. still maintains the largest store of government-owned gold in a heavily protected vault under the Federal Reserve Bank of New York—resting on bedrock. Gold is freaking heavy.
