But silver coinage was added five years later, after an economic depression. Fast forward to 1893. If you would like to learn about the history of money in detail, there is an excellent site called A Comparative Chronology of Money which details the important places and dates in monetary history. Let’s start with the key conceptual issues. We wrote about policy rules recently. The second aims for a return to the gold standard (see here and here) to promote price and financial stability. In this post, we explain why a restoration of the gold standard is a profoundly bad idea. Before 1870, the international monetary system consisted of bimetallism, where both gold and silver coins were used as the international modes of payment. During most of the 1800s, the United States had a bimetallic system of money; however, it was essentially on a gold standard as very little silver was traded. Bimetallism, monetary standard or system based upon the use of two metals, traditionally gold and silver, rather than one (monometallism).The typical 19th-century bimetallic system defined a nation’s monetary unit by law in terms of fixed quantities of gold and silver (thus automatically establishing a rate of exchange between the two metals). During the 1800's there was a new push for bimetallism, not just the gold standard. The standard coins possess a fixed weight and fineness of gold. The Cross of Gold speech was delivered by William Jennings Bryan, a former United States Representative from Nebraska, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on July 9, 1896. As its name suggests, the term gold standard refers to a monetary system in which the value of currency is based on gold. But the government remained committed to the gold standard, including the official demonetizing of silver altogether in 1873. Start studying Unit 5 APUSH. A Brief History of the Gold Standard . Retaining the gold standard would pro-vide a more stable, but expensive, currency. Free silver was a major economic policy issue in late-19th-century America. BRYAN AND THE “CROSS OF GOLD”Stepping into the debate, the Populist Party called for bimetallism and free coinage of silver. In the address, Bryan supported bimetallism or "free silver", which he believed would bring the nation prosperity.He decried the gold standard, concluding the speech, "you shall not crucify mankind upon a … For scholarly purposes, "proper" bimetallism is sometimes distinguished as permitting that both gold and silver money are legal tender in unlimited amounts and that gold and silver may be taken to be coined by the government mints in unlimited quantities. The nation's worst depression to that point began that year. In that year, the gold standard was adopted. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. The exchange rates among currencies were determined by their gold or silver contents. Gold standard is the most popular form of monometallic standard. There had been frequent attempts to establish a bimetallic standard, which in turn would have created inflationary pressures and placed more money into circulation that could have subsequently benefitted farmers. Each party blamed the other. Under gold standard, the monetary unit is expressed in terms of gold. The Gold Standard vs. Fiat Money . The nation had gone on and off the gold-only standard since the issue first surfaced in 1873. 5.3.1.2 Gold standard bimetallism hoped that this measure would stimulate the stagnant economy. Some countries were either on a gold or a silver standard.