First edition. A famous study of the Union’s attempts to prevent inflation after issuing the first paper money in the United States that operated as legal tender for bullion, called ‘demand notes’ or ‘greenbacks’ (since they were printed in green on the back), by keeping down the price of gold, which obstinately insisted on rising again. The Union even attempted to abolish the gold market, but in the end the answer was ‘victories and heavy taxes’, estimated by Mitchell to have been one-fifth or one-sixth of labourers’ wages. Mitchell develops an interesting account of consumer behaviour in the Ricardian tradition, showing that increased wealth (i.e. more circulating money) led to increased consumption only in one half of the population, and only of luxury goods, as the wealthy felt their profits and fortunes to be increasing; poorer classes chose to economise, perceiving a dual rise in costs of living and taxes, despite their real wages increasing.

Not in Sraffa.