Alexander del Mar (aka Alexander Del Mar and Alexander Delmar; August 9, 1836 – July 1, 1926) was an American political economist, historian,
numismatist
A numismatist is a specialist in numismatics ("of coins"; from Late Latin ''numismatis'', genitive of ''numisma''). Numismatists include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholars who use coins and other currency in object-based research. Altho ...
and author.
[
In business affairs he was frequently referred to in contemporary reports and newspapers as Delmar; however, many of his published works appeared under the name of del Mar. He sometimes appended the letters C.E. and/or M.E. (respectively "Civil Engineer" and "Mining Engineer") to his name.] He was the first Director of the Bureau of Statistics at the
U.S. Treasury Department
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...
from 1866–69.
[The ]US Treasury Department
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...
's Bureau of Statistics (1866–1903) should not be confused with the Bureau of Statistics of the US State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...
(1874–1897). The two were eventually merged in 1903 under the Department of Commerce and Labor. See
Del Mar was a rigorous historian who made important contributions to the
history of money
The history of money concerns the development throughout time of systems that provide the functions of money. Such systems can be understood as means of trading wealth indirectly; not directly as with bartering. Money is a mechanism that facilit ...
. During the mid-1890s, he was distinctly hostile to a central monetary role for gold as
commodity money
Commodity money is money whose value comes from a commodity of which it is made. Commodity money consists of objects having value or use in themselves (intrinsic value) as well as their value in buying goods.
This is in contrast to representati ...
, championing the cause of
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
and its re-monetization as a prerogative of the state.
He believed strongly in the
legal function of money. Del Mar dedicated much of his free time to original research in the great libraries and coin collections of Europe on the history of
monetary system
A monetary system is a system by which a government provides money in a country's economy. Modern monetary systems usually consist of the national treasury, the mint, the central banks and commercial banks.
Commodity money system
A commodity m ...
s and
finance
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...
.
Biography
Alexander del Mar, of
Jewish-Spanish descent,
[
] was born in New York City, August 9, 1836, as oldest son of Jacob and Belvidere Alexander del Mar.
He lived for a short period of time in the United Kingdom with his uncle Emanuel del Mar and there received an education in humanities from a private
tutor
TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in co ...
,
Arthur Helps
Sir Arthur Helps (10 July 1813 – 7 March 1875) was an English writer and dean of the Privy Council. He was a Cambridge Apostle and an early advocate of animal rights.
Biography
The youngest son of London merchant Thomas Helps, Arthur He ...
(later knighted, becoming Sir
Arthur Helps
Sir Arthur Helps (10 July 1813 – 7 March 1875) was an English writer and dean of the Privy Council. He was a Cambridge Apostle and an early advocate of animal rights.
Biography
The youngest son of London merchant Thomas Helps, Arthur He ...
). He was instructed in history,
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
, law, and
political economy
Political economy is the study of how Macroeconomics, economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and Economy, national economies) and Politics, political systems (e.g. law, Institution, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied ph ...
.
After graduating from
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
as a
civil engineer, he was educated as a
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
engineer in Spain at the
Madrid School of Mines.
Aged 18, he returned to the U.S. in 1854 to become the financial editor of the short-lived ''
Daily American Times''.
He moved to ''Hunt's Merchant's Magazine'' in 1860, and in 1863 co-founded and edited with Simon Stern the prestigious quarterly ''New York Social Science Review'' (first published in January 1865). He was also involved with the ''
Commercial & Financial Chronicle
The ''Commercial & Financial Chronicle'' was a business newspaper in the United States founded by William Buck Dana (1829–1910) in 1865. Published weekly, the ''Commercial & Financial Chronicle'' was deliberately modeled to be an American take ...
'', founded in 1865 by William Dana.
In 1865, Del Mar, a notorious Free Trader, helped establish the first
Free Trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econ ...
organization in the United States, the American Free Trade League (AFTL), alongside
Horace White
Horace White (October 7, 1865 – November 27, 1943) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was the 37th Governor of New York from October 6, 1910 to December 31, 1910.
Life
He attended Syracuse Central High School, Cornell Un ...
,
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he found ...
, and
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...
, among others.
In 1866, Del Mar was appointed as the first Director of US
Treasury Department's Bureau of Statistics (now part of the
Bureau of Economic Analysis).
[ At the time the bureau was a board of trade, with executive functions, among others the supervision of the commissioners of mines, commerce, immigration, etc. Del Mar pioneered the use of a modern and scientific approach to statistics. He remained director until 1869, overseeing numerous reports.] He was forced to resign by his superior, David Ames Wells
David Ames Wells (June 17, 1828 – November 5, 1898) was an American engineer, textbook author, economist and advocate of low tariffs.
Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, he graduated from Williams College in 1847. In 1848 he joined the staff ...
, and was replaced by Francis Amasa Walker
Francis Amasa Walker (July 2, 1840 – January 5, 1897) was an American economist, statistician, journalist, educator, academic administrator, and an officer in the Union Army.
Walker was born into a prominent Boston family, the son of the econo ...
. Both were ardent supporters of specie
Specie may refer to:
* Coins or other metal money in mass circulation
* Bullion coins
* Hard money (policy)
* Commodity money
Commodity money is money whose value comes from a commodity of which it is made. Commodity money consists of objects ...
money and opposed to Del Mar's convictions of fiat money
Fiat money (from la, fiat, "let it be done") is a type of currency that is not backed by any commodity such as gold or silver. It is typically designated by the issuing government to be legal tender. Throughout history, fiat money was sometime ...
.
In 1866, he was appointed the American delegate to the International Monetary Congress which met in Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
.
During the close-fought 1868 presidential election, he was nominated for Secretary of the Treasury
The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
under Horatio Seymour
Horatio Seymour (May 31, 1810February 12, 1886) was an American politician. He served as Governor of New York from 1853 to 1854 and from 1863 to 1864. He was the Democratic Party nominee for president in the 1868 United States presidential elec ...
's Democratic ticket.
In 1869, he purchased the Washington-based ''National Intelligencer
The ''National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser'' was a newspaper published in Washington, D.C., from October 30, 1800 until 1870. It was the first newspaper published in the District, which was founded in 1790. It was originally a Tri- ...
'', merged it with the ''Washington Express'' and moved its offices to New York in January 1870. It later became the New York ''City and National Intelligencer'' which he edited and published until 1872.
He ran under Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and newspaper editor, editor of the ''New-York Tribune''. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressm ...
's ticket for Secretary of the Treasury
The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
during the 1872 United States presidential election. The coalition between the Democrats and Greeley's Liberal Republican Party was soundly defeated, and the LRP ceased to exist shortly after. In the same year Del Mar represented the United States at the international monetary congress in St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
.
In 1877, Del Mar was appointed mining commissioner to the U.S. Monetary Commission. This commission was created by Congress in 1876 when it discovered the subterfuge that led to the Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the ...
. It was charged to investigate:
Although the commission reported unfavourably on the switch to the ''de facto'' gold standard and recommended a return to silver, gold's status as a reserve currency was to remain unchallenged until the 1930s.
In 1878, Del Mar was appointed as clerk to the .
In 1878, Del Mar also wrote a series of letters under the Chinese pseudonym "Kwang Chang Ling" in the San Francisco ''Argonaut'' journal. The letters warned Californians, and the broader United States, that China had the potential to rise as an economic giant. Del Mar, as Kwang Chang Ling, argued that excluding cheap Chinese labor to protect American wages and lessen unemployment would do little to protect American laborers in the long term, for China's labor force would continue to pose a global economic threat despite national policies. Del Mar's writings are the first known attempt to use Free Trade rhetoric as a solution to the "Chinese Question" and to counter anti-Chinese attitudes that led to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplo ...
.
In 1879, he published his ''History of the Precious Metals'', the labor of twenty-two years of research during his own free time. From 1880 onwards, he mainly devoted his professional career to writing.
In 1881, he published ''A History of Money in Ancient States'', in 1885 ''Money and Civilization'', in 1889 ''The Science of Money'', in 1895, ''A History of Monetary Systems in Modern States'', in 1899 ''A History of Monetary Crimes'', in 1900 ''A History of Money in America'', in 1903 ''A History of Monetary Systems of France''. Del Mar also published several archaeological treatises of great interest.
Del Mar was the New York state chairman of the Silver Party
The Silver Party was a political party in the United States active from 1892 until 1911 and most successful in Nevada which supported a platform of bimetallism and free silver.
In 1892, several Silver Party candidates were elected to Nevada p ...
, and spoke at its 1896 Chicago meeting in support of William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator and politician. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the Democratic Party, running three times as the party's nominee for President ...
.
He was editor-in-chief of the ''American Banker
''American Banker'' is a Manhattan-based trade publication covering the financial services industry. Originally a daily newspaper, the print edition ceased publication in 2016, with an online edition continuing to be updated. The first issue of ...
'', 1905–1906.
Alexander del Mar died at his daughter's home in Little Falls, New Jersey
Little Falls is a township in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. The township was named for a waterfall on the Passaic River at a dam near Beattie Mill.
As of the 2020 census, the township's population was 13,360 reflecting a decreas ...
on July 1, 1926, at the age of ninety. Upon his death, he donated his private library of 15,000 volumes to the American Bankers Association
The American Bankers Association (ABA) is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association for the U.S. banking industry, founded in 1875. They lobby for banks of all sizes and charters, including community banks, regional and money center banks, sav ...
.
Family life
With his first wife, the former Emily Joseph (the daughter of Joseph L. Joseph), he had eleven children, seven that survived to adulthood, including five sons, Walter
Walter may refer to:
People
* Walter (name), both a surname and a given name
* Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968)
* Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...
, Eugene, Harry, Algernon, and William ; and two daughters, Francesca Paloma del Mar, who trained as an artist, and Maud (Blackwelder) del Mar. With his second wife, the former Alice Florence Berg, he had 9 children, including six sons and three daughters: Edward Del Mar, Juanita Del Mar, May Delmar, Frank Del Mar, Sidney Del Mar, Albert Del Mar, Eric Del Mar, Hugo Del Mar, Irene Del mar.
Quotes
* John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...
spoke highly about Del Mar:
Del Mar is a remarkable writer. There is stuff in him. He is the sort of man you need in America. He knows what he is about. He is the sort of man to put things right in your country, or in any country.
* From Del Mar's 1895 book ''History of Monetary Systems'':
In the United States the same bag of coins often masquerades now as the reserve of one bank, and now of another. How far similar subterfuges are employed in the various private banking establishments of Germany is not known, and in the absence of such knowledge it is deemed safer to include the entire paper issues in the circulation. This at least is a known quantity; the " reserves," as experience has too often and too sadly proved, may only exist in the playful imagination of that fortunate class who have secured the prerogative to issue bank money.
* ''A la mort, l'argent!'' (Silver until I die!)
Selected bibliography
* del Mar, Alexander, (1862). ''Gold money and paper money''. New York: Anson D.F. Randolph. (Pamphlet) (Cornell University Library reprint 200 ... )
* del Mar, Alexander (1864)
''The great paper bubble: or the coming financial explosion''
New York: Office of the Metropolitan Record.
* del Mar, Alexander, (1866). ''Statistics of the world''. Washington (DC): Government Press. (Pamphlet)
* "Emile Walter" (del Mar, Alexander, pseud.) (1867)
''What is free trade? An adaptation of Frederick Bastiat's "Sophismes economiques"''
New York: G.P. Putnam and Son. (repr. Dodo Press, 2009 )
* del Mar, Alexander, (1867)
''History of money and civilization''
(repr. NY: Burt Franklin, 1969)
* del Mar, Alexander, (1867) ''Decadence of American shipbuilding''. Washington: Government Press
*
* del Mar, Alexander, (1868). ''The whiskey tax for 100 Years''. Washington (DC): Congressional Subcommittee on Retrenchment.
* del Mar, Alexander, (1878)
''Why should the Chinese go? : a pertinent inquiry from a mandarin high in authority''
San Francisco: Bruce's Book & Job Printing House. .B. del Mar states the case for ''not'' expelling the Chinese workers.* del Mar, Alexander, (1879). ''Usury and the jews: a lecture delivered at Steinway Hall, February 11th, 1879''. San Francisco (CA): I.N. Choynski. (Pamphlet) [Not available online as of November 2013, but its contents are summarised in Brooke-Rose, Christine, (1971)
''A ZBC of Ezra Pound''
University of California Press, pp. 223–5.]
* del Mar, Alexander, (1880)
The history of money in ancient countries from the earliest times to the present
'. London: George Bell and Sons. (repr. Kessinger Publishing, 2003 )
* del Mar, Alexander, (1885), (2nd ed., 1899).
The science of money
'. London, George Bell and Sons. (repr. Kessinger Publishing, 2008 )
* del Mar, Alexander, (1887)
Silver
. ''Enyclopedia Britannica'', 9th Edition, Vol. XXII, pp. 70-74 (signed A. De.)
* del Mar, Alexander (1885), (2nd ed., 1901).
History of the precious metals from the earliest times to the present
'. London: George Bell and Sons. (repr. Kessinger Publishing, 2004 )
* del Mar, Alexander, (1895)
''History of monetary systems''
New York: Cambridge Encyclopedia Co. (repr. NY: A.M. Kelley, 1978)
* del Mar, Alexander, (1899
''The history of money in America, from the earliest times to the constitution''
New York: Cambridge Encyclopedia Co. (repr. NY: Burt Franklin, 1968)
* del Mar, Alexander, (1899)
''Barbara Villiers: or a history of monetary crimes''
New York: Groseclose, Money & Man. (repr. Omni Publications, 1967,1983)
* del Mar, Alexander, (1899)
''The worship of Augustus Caesar''
''derived from a study of coins, monuments, calendars, eras, and astronomical and astrological cycles, the whole establishing a new chronology and survey of history and religion''. New York: Cambridge Encyclopedia Co.
* del Mar, Alexander, (1899)
''Ancient Britain in the light of modern archaeological discoveries''
New York: Cambridge Encyclopedia Co.
* del Mar, Alexander, (1900)
''The middle ages revisited; or, the Roman government and religion and their relations to Britain''
New York: Cambridge Encyclopedia Co.
Some works by Del Mar were announced but apparently not printed, including ''The politics of money'' and ''The history of money in modern countries''.
See also
* Coinage Act of 1873
The Coinage Act of 1873 or Mint Act of 1873, was a general revision of laws relating to the Mint of the United States. By ending the right of holders of silver bullion to have it coined into standard silver dollars, while allowing holders of go ...
* Free silver
* Monetary reform
Monetary reform is any movement or theory that proposes a system of supplying money and financing the economy that is different from the current system.
Monetary reformers may advocate any of the following, among other proposals:
* A return t ...
* Black Friday (1869)
The Black Friday gold panic of September 24, 1869 was caused by a conspiracy between two investors, Jay Gould and his partner James Fisk, and Abel Corbin, a small time speculator who had married Virginia (Jennie) Grant, the younger sister of ...
Covers the gold scandal of 1869.
* Veil of money
* Money illusion
In economics, money illusion, or price illusion, is a cognitive bias where money is thought of in nominal, rather than real terms. In other words, the face value (nominal value) of money is mistaken for its purchasing power (real value) at a previ ...
* Criticism of fractional-reserve banking
Fractional-reserve banking is the system of banking operating in almost all countries worldwide, under which banks that take deposits from the public are required to hold a proportion of their deposit liabilities in liquid assets as a reserve, ...
* Stephen Zarlenga Stephen A. Zarlenga (1941 – 25 April 2017) was a researcher and author in the field of monetary theory, trader in stock and financial markets, and advocate of monetary reform.
Biography
Zarlenga's parents Dino and LisaZarlenga (2002b) emigrated f ...
* American Monetary Institute
{{Notability, date=April 2022
The American Monetary Institute is a non-profit charitable trust established by Stephen Zarlenga in 1996 for the "independent study of monetary history, theory and reform."
Aims
The institute is dedicated to moneta ...
Notes
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Del Mar, Alexander
1836 births
1926 deaths
American numismatists
American economists
Monetary economists
Economic historians
Monetary reformers
Silver Party politicians
New York (state) Silverites
American people of Spanish-Jewish descent
American Sephardic Jews