LovinHistory
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- Joined
- Jul 17, 2021
Here's my favorite piece in my collection
Thanks for the info,I like these old bonds,besides the handwriting on the other side is incredibleThe bond is "payable on demand" to the Southwestern RR ---- if the government has the cash. Without converting these bonds to currency, it was impossible for the railroads to pay their operating expenses and there are abundant records to show the failure of railroads to pay even their employees at this point of the war.
Very cool. Thanks for posting!Here's my favorite piece in my collection
I found one for over 2 million.I have to have somebody look at it first.This $100k bond I have there are 2 others in a museum.That is an awesome amount of money to be coughing up that late in the war. Nov. 26, 1864
And the front is E AppersonJust out of curiosity can you make out the signature on the bond?
Does this show the Southwestern Railroad Bank has turned in $100,000 of some form of collateral to a loan agreement with the Confederate Government, and that the 'pay on demand' means it cannot be reclaimed again until the new money is printed?"Payable on demand" does not mean what you all think it does. The promise is not to pay coin; it is to carry out a swap of the "old" debt for the new that will be payable in the new Confederate currency when due. The details are explained in the issue of the Richmond Daily Dispatch at this link. They are fairly technical; the best comparison I can offer is DeGaulle's exchange of the "old" franc for the "new" franc in 1960. That was, on the surface, nothing more than an exchange of coins; but it was actually a complete restructuring of the French national debt in an attempt to cope with the drain from the Algerian War. (Two years later France would accept defeat.) The Confederate Congress and the Treasury were trying to do much the same thing in early 1864 by resetting the value of the Confederate dollar through calling in all the old paper and, at the same time, restructuring all the outstanding obligations of the Treasury. The new currency, unlike the old notes, sets a two-year duration; the old ones had promised payment only when the war was over. (That had been expected to be a much shorter duration; like Grant in 1861 the Confederate Congress did not expect the war to last more than a few months.)
https://tinyurl.com/yaxr4ph3
This is payment for $100,000 of services rendered -- ie goods and troops carried for the CS government. Each soldier or item carried was documented with the signature of an army officer and, monthly, the consolidated bills were turned in by the railroads to the government for payment. Payment was not prompt, being months behind at times. The result was huge debts to the busy railroads, paid partly with these monster bonds; other payment was made in currency at the same time. So, the debt for service was changed from an immediate one to a bond, due some day. The intent of the bond was to reduce the amount of currency the government had to produce and to reduce the amount of currency in circulation in a vain attempt to control inflation.Does this show the Southwestern Railroad Bank has turned in $100,000 of some form of collateral to a loan agreement with the Confederate Government, and that the 'pay on demand' means it cannot be reclaimed again until the new money is printed?
Thanks for the explanation.
Lubliner.
This bond had nothing to do with the currency change. The railroads had been accepting bonds in partial payment since early 1862."Payable on demand" does not mean what you all think it does. The promise is not to pay coin; it is to carry out a swap of the "old" debt for the new that will be payable in the new Confederate currency when due. The details are explained in the issue of the Richmond Daily Dispatch at this link. They are fairly technical; the best comparison I can offer is DeGaulle's exchange of the "old" franc for the "new" franc in 1960. That was, on the surface, nothing more than an exchange of coins; but it was actually a complete restructuring of the French national debt in an attempt to cope with the drain from the Algerian War. (Two years later France would accept defeat.) The Confederate Congress and the Treasury were trying to do much the same thing in early 1864 by resetting the value of the Confederate dollar through calling in all the old paper and, at the same time, restructuring all the outstanding obligations of the Treasury. The new currency, unlike the old notes, sets a two-year duration; the old ones had promised payment only when the war was over. (That had been expected to be a much shorter duration; like Grant in 1861 the Confederate Congress did not expect the war to last more than a few months.)
https://tinyurl.com/yaxr4ph3
Agreed about the partial payment. All the railroads and other suppliers to the Confederacy, on both sides of the Mississippi, had been accepting bonds as "payment" for services rendered. I put the word "payment" in quotes because the bonds were not the final discharge of the obligation; they were the collateral being offered by the Confederate Treasury against the promise of eventual payment in currency.This bond had nothing to do with the currency change. The railroads had been accepting bonds in partial payment since early 1862.
"Does this show the Southwestern Railroad Bank has turned in $100,000 of some form of collateral to a loan agreement with the Confederate Government, and that the 'pay on demand' means it cannot be reclaimed again until the new money is printed?This is payment for $100,000 of services rendered -- ie goods and troops carried for the CS government. Each soldier or item carried was documented with the signature of an army officer and, monthly, the consolidated bills were turned in by the railroads to the government for payment. Payment was not prompt, being months behind at times. The result was huge debts to the busy railroads, paid partly with these monster bonds; other payment was made in currency at the same time. So, the debt for service was changed from an immediate one to a bond, due some day. The intent of the bond was to reduce the amount of currency the government had to produce and to reduce the amount of currency in circulation in a vain attempt to control inflation.
How's THIS on a document dated September 1, 1826 I found last week at a local antiques mall:Thanks for the info,I like these old bonds,besides the handwriting on the other side is incredible