History Of Delaware County Iowa And Its People PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 edition. Excerpt: ...given in California by the ounce in exchange for miners' supplies, the Government coined at the San Francisco mint a $50 gold piece, for the convenience of handling, guaranteed to be so many ounces of fine gold of the value of $50. This was not i Government coin, as it did not contain any alloy. It was only guaranteed to he so many fine ounces. The piece was octagonal in shape and was called by our people a "slug."' Some of those slugs were brought home by the miners. FINANCIAL CRASH OF 1857 AND WILD CAT MONEY But alas! Our prosperity, after flourishing a few years, came to a sudden halt. The great financial crisis of 1857 stopped all progress. It seemed the trold and silver had taken wings and flown away. Our country was flooded with worthless paper currency, issued by private banks that had sprung up like..Jonah's gourd. All over the then western states private banking, then not restricted by law. issued an unlimited quantity of paper money. It was brought from the states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois, scattered over Iowa with no security behind it and no law by which the guilty parties could be punished. So that, we found ourselves stranded and it was quite a task to get hold of gold or silver to pay taxes, which had to be paid in coin of the country. All articles of manufacture remained unsold. Products of the soil were disposed of for less than nothing or were not sold at all. All manner of business came to a standstill. Little improvement was made within the state. It was about all a man could do to make a living and hold on to what he had. Up until the Government issued currency to carry on the war of the great rebellion, prices remained very low. Just before the close of the war. in 1864 and 1865, prices of everything...