5. The Many Monies of King Cotton: Domestic and Foreign Currencies in New Orleans, 1856–1860

This case study illustrates how a diverse array of domestic and foreign currencies satisfied the money demands of the many interregional and international trade circuits articulated around New Orleans (the most important Southern port of trade) right before the American Civil War. It also explores how the plurality of currencies provided liquidity when it was the most needed, especially during and after the panic of 1857, through adjustments of currency exchange rates. Discounts and premiums of state banknotes provide information about the patterns of spatial division of labor and the imbalanced regional specialization of the American economy right before the Civil War. The nominal exchange rates of foreign currencies in New Orleans such as the British sterling pound, the French franc, the Austrian thaler, the Mexican peso, the Spanish and the Spanish American “patriot” doubloons inform our understanding of the integration of the American slaveholding, staple-exporting South to the world economy of the long nineteenth century.