New York Gold Exchange
| Type | exchange |
|---|---|
| Location | New York City, United States |
| Founded | 1862 on New Street, Manhattan |
| Closed | January 1, 1897 |
The New York Gold Exchange was an
History
During Civil War
The exchange was established in 1862 in a basement on New Street.[1] The exchange was created during the American Civil War, when the Union issued paper money to fund the war effort. Gold trading was initially banned at the New York Stock Exchange, which viewed the practice as unpatriotic speculation in wartime.[1][2] This was because Confederate victories resulted in an increase in the price of gold relative to the greenback dollar, causing gold traders to sing "Dixie" in the Exchange when they received news of a Confederate victory.[2] Abraham Lincoln at one point publicly expressed the wish that "every one of them [the gold speculators] had his devilish head shot off."[3]
The banishment of gold trading from the New York Stock Exchange "barely halted the trade for an instant" as gold traders relocated to various basements on Wall Street, William Street, and Broad Street.[2] Trading moved successively from "an ill-lit den called the Coal Hole" to Gilpin's News Room,[2] also called Gilpin's Gold Room.[1] It is unclear who Gilpin was.[3]
On June 17, 1864, Congress, angered by the speculation, passed an act prohibiting gold trades anywhere except for brokers' offices. This briefly shut down the exchange, but unregulated street transactions continued. Speculation was not stymied, and the price of gold relative to greenbacks rose. Congress repealed the law two weeks later.[3]
Gilpin's reopened under the name "New York Gold Exchange" the same year,[1] and was incorporated on October 14, 1864.[4] The New York Gold Exchange's new facility, located at the corner of William Street and Exchange Place, was usually known simply as the Gold Room.[2][5] The lavishly appointed exchange "anticipated the dawning Gilded Age."[6]
The businessman
Gold trading was significant for the U.S.'s foreign trade, but the majority of trading on the Exchange was speculative.
Post–Civil War
The New York Gold Exchange became part of the New York Stock Exchange in 1865.
Gold trading became less profitable as the stock market became more
See also
- Business and economics portal
New York City portal
- List of former stock exchanges in the Americas
- List of stock exchange mergers in the Americas
- List of stock exchanges
- Economy of New York City
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h George Winslow, "New York Gold Market" in The Encyclopedia of New York City (2d ed.: eds. Kenneth T. Jackson, Lisa Keller & Nancy Flood).
- ^ a b c d e Edwin G. Burrows & Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (Oxford University Press, pp. 900–01.
- ^ a b c d e f John Steele Gordon, An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power (2004; Harper Perennial ed. 2005), pp. 197–99.
- ^ a b c d Robert Sobel, The Curbstone Brokers: The Origins of the American Stock Exchange (1970: Bread Books ed., 2000), p. 35.
- ^ a b c d e Robert Sobel, The Big Board: A History of the New York Stock Market (1965; Beard Book ed. 2000), pp. 75–76.
- ISBN 978-0-7923-9762-5.
- M.E. Sharpe, 2003), p. 100.
- ^ Urs Stäheli, Spectacular Speculation: Thrills, the Economy, and Popular Discourse (Stanford University Press, 2013), pp. 197–98.
- ^ Robert T. Swaine, The Cravath Firm and Its Predecessors, 1819–1947 (Vol. 1: 1946, Lawbook Exchange ed., 2007), p. 262.
