University of Virginia Library

This pamphlet is probably the single most famous pamphlet on colonial monetary history. The American Economic Association reprinted it in October 1897 as Vol. II. No. 5 of a series entitled “Economic Studies.” The reprint includes a detailed biography of Douglass, written by Charles Bullock. When Andrew McFarland Davis republished the pamphlet in “Colonial Currency Reprints” he included his own commentary. There had been some doubt about when and where the pamphlet was originally published; Bullock accepts the view that it was first published in London. Davis presents convincing evidence that the Boston edition of the pamphlet is the original, and that it was published in the spring of 1740.

Douglass was argumentative, opinionated, and an uncompromising hard money advocate. His belligerent prose, conservative views, and debtor-creditor interpretation of colonial monetary history all run counter to the tastes of modern historians; consequently, many view him with disdain. Economists have been more apt to admire his analytical ability. For example, Douglass was perhaps the first person to explain the so-called “Fisher effect.” The “Fisher effect” — named for Irving Fisher, a 20th century economist who made it famous — is the tendency of expected inflation to increase interest rates. In Douglass's Postscript, you will find a remarkable analysis of the balance of payments, accurately anticipating what is now known as the “monetary approach to the balance of payments.”

The hyperlinks in the text take you to errata that Douglass provided when he wrote the Postscript to the Discourse.