What was the price of gold in 1864?

Answer 1

Speculation in gold and securities increases along with inflation in the Union. Gold approaches $175/oz. April 4; it rises to $188/oz. by the time Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase arrives in mid-April to confer with Philadelphia financier Jay Cooke and Assistant Treasurer John J. Cisco, who is in charge of the subtreasury in New York. Chase gives Cooke approval to start selling some of the $6 to $7 million in gold stored by Cisco, and the price drops to $174/oz. By April 21, Cooke has sold about $7 million in gold, but the price has fallen to $160/oz.

A new federal banking law that takes effect June 3 permits creation of banking associations with national charters controlled by a comptroller of the currency in the Treasury Department at Washington, D.C.

A new tariff act approved by Congress June 19 raises rates substantially.

A new Internal Revenue Act approved by Congress June 30 broadens the income tax and imposes other taxes on business.

The price of gold rebounds to a high of $285/oz. in July as Confederate forces under General Jubal Early march through Maryland, falls again in early November as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury John J. Cisco receives authority to resume selling, rises about 12½ percent to $259½/oz. at news of President Lincoln's reelection, but drops soon thereafter to $252/oz. Stock and bond prices have similar wild swings, with frequent-albeit shortlived-panics.

Congress creates the Crédit Mobilier of America through a rechartering of the 5-year-old Pennsylvania Fiscal Agency, formerly controlled by journalist-businessman Duff Green, 72. Union Pacific Railroad promoter Thomas C. Durant is president, and investors include Oakes Ames and his brother Oliver; the new company will build the railroad's first 247 miles, but Durant is less interested in spanning the continent with track than in making money from congressional subsidies and construction contracts (seetransportation, 1863; 1867; Williams report, 1862).

The U.S. Mint issues a bronze Indian-head 1¢ piece whose design will remain unchanged until 1909.

The Confederacy suffers wild inflation as $1 billion in paper currency is circulated. Gold value of the paper money falls in the first quarter of the year to $4.60 per $100 while in the North the gold value of the "greenback" falls to 39¢ as of July 11 (see 1863; 1865). Intelligence agents employed by LaFayette C. Baker uncover a major fraud in the Treasury Department and find that prominent Union officials have been trading with the enemy.