Currency, or The Fundamental Principles of Monetary Science, Postulated, Explained, and Applied.
New York. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1882. 12mo., 18.8cm, the First Edition, xxxix,309,[ii]p., ads., notes, appendices, in the original brick brown cloth, gilt spine titles, double blind ruled borders on the boards, rare. A Fine Bright Copy. Item #44095
WILLSON, HUGH BOWLBY (Bowlsby, Boultby), (At the core of Canadian economic thought) - barrister, author, journalist, and businessman; b. in Saltfleet Township, U.C., 15 Sept. 1813, third son of John Willson* and Elizabeth Bowlby, and uncle of Thomas Leopold “Carbide” Willson*; d. in New York City, 29 April 1880. …
Willson moved to Washington, D.C., around the close of the Civil War and married Harriot Conway Ladde of that city. He later settled in New York City but continued to follow Canadian affairs and to write for the Hamilton Spectator. He had sophisticated and advanced ideas on monetary theory, and was a persistent advocate of reform of the money and banking system in both the United States and Great Britain. He became deeply involved in the postwar “Greenback” controversy in the United States. In a number of pamphlets and in testimony before a congressional committee in 1879, he argued strongly that notes issued by the state should be the permanent and exclusive circulating medium. He suggested the creation of a currency board to control the issue of paper money and proposed that the amount of paper money should be related to the volume of business transactions in the country. He believed that monetary mismanagement was a principal cause of periodic depressions in Great Britain and the United States. He was also a vigorous opponent of the Bank of England and wanted the introduction of one pound notes for general circulation “of a convenient size for pocket use.”…
The quality of Willson’s writings on money and banking was excellent and he foreshadowed a number of welcome changes which were to be introduced after his death. He kept in touch with his friend and mentor John Rae until Rae’s death in 1871, and, although he does not specifically refer to Rae in his writings, he was clearly influenced by his penetrating ideas on economics. He died in New York in 1880, survived by his wife and two adopted children. DCB. R. Warren James and John S. Moir.
Price: $2,200.00