Problems in Analyzing Inflation During the Civil War

Abstract

In the American Civil War, a drastic increase in the level of “high powered money” with the issuance of the greenbacks had a relatively modest effect on the measured price level. The existence of a free market in gold and the presence of specie are offered as an explanation for the constrained movements both in the money multiplier and in movements in measured income velocity. These unusual results largely reflect the fact that in such a world of freely fluctuating multiple currencies, a rise in the measured price level does not reflect the decline in the value of money.