1. Discounting Gold: Money and Banking in Gold Rush California
- Author:
- Jonathan Tiemann and Christopher McKenna
- Publication Date:
- 04-2021
- Content Type:
- Case Study
- Institution:
- Oxford Centre for Global History
- Abstract:
- Two momentous events early in 1848 completely and abruptly transformed California. On 24 January, James Marshall found gold in a millrace he was building for John Sutter at Coloma, on the South Fork of the American River. Nine days later, on 2 February, the United States and Mexico concluded the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending nearly two years of hostilities. Under the Treaty, Mexico ceded much of the present south-western United States to the US for monetary consideration. An American occupation government had ruled most of California since mid-1846, but neither the American military governor nor the earlier Mexican governors had held firm political control over the remote, sparsely populated territory. 1 Now, the problem was fully in the hands of the Americans.
- Topic:
- Economics, History, Monetary Policy, Capitalism, Currency, and Banking
- Political Geography:
- United States