HET: Ernest Seyd

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Ernest Seyd, 1833-1881.

Influential German-born Anglo-American banker and monetary economist. Born in Prussia, Ernest Seyd emigrated to the United States at a young age. He later moved back to Europe. He was in Paris during the events of 1848, and seems to have participated in the German revolution and Frankfurt parliament. In 1857, he moved permanently to Britain, where he became an advisor to the Bank of England and participated in the monetary and banking debates of the time. He continued to provide extensive commentary on monetary and banking reform in other countries, and is especially credited for the German Banking Act of 1875.

Ernest Seyd's name got implicated in a scandal in his later years, after his death, by American agitators for bimetallism. If the accusers are to be believed, Seyd was dispatched by the Bank of England to the United States in the winter of 1872-73, with the purpose of persuading the US Congress to pass a bill demonetizing silver. Seyd was accused of having with hims some half-million dollars raised by English and German bankers (Rothschild esp.), which he freely distributed in bribes to several US Congressmen and Senators to secure the passage of the bill. The complication, of course, is not only that Seyd was in London throughout this time, but that he was an vocal and ardent bimetallist - indeed, one of the few leading monetary figures in that camp. Nonetheless, American bimetallist agitators and pamphleteers during the 1890s, keen to portray the gold standard as a foreign plot, dragged Seyd's name through the mud.

He should not be confused with his son and namesake, Ernest Seyd, Jr., author of several books on the silver question (1886, 1893).

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Major Works of Ernest Seyd

California and its resources: A work for the merchant, the capitalist, and the emigrant, 1858
Bullion and Foreign Exchanges, theoretically and practically considered, followed by a defense of the double valuation, with special reference to the proposed system of universal coinage, 1868
The Question of Seignorage and Charge for Coining, 1868
The Depreciation of Labour and Property which Would Follow the Demonetisation of Silver, 1869
"On International Coinage and the Variations of the Foreign Exchanges during Recent Years", 1870, JSS of London
Die Munz-Wahrungs und Bankfragen in Deutschland, 1871
Suggestions in reference to the Metallic Currency of the United States of America, 1871
"On Currency Laws and their Effects on Pauperism", 1871, JSS of London
The London Banking and Bankers' Clearing House System, 1872
"Statistical Critique on the Operation of the Bank Charter Act of 1844 and suggestions for an improved system of issue", 1872, JSS of London (1873 offprint)
The Bank of England note issue and its error: An address to the holders of Bank of England stock, and to bankers and economists generally, 1874
The Bank of Issue Question: Memorial addressed to the Governor and Directors of the Bank of England, 1875
The Fall in the Price of Silver: its causes, its consequences, and their possible avoidance, with special reference to India, 1876
The Decline of Prosperity: its insidious cause and obvious remedy, 1879
The Depression of Trade, its real cause and and its remedy, 1879

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Resources on Ernest Seyd

Notice of death at 1881 International Monetary Conference
Early note of the slander, 1888, The Nation
Example of Seyd accusation in Leavitt, 1894 Our Money Wars
Seyd case in Craven, 1896, Errors of Populism
Ernest Seyd Slander denied (NY Times, 1896, PDF)
Ernest Seyd case in W.D. Porter Bliss, 1897 Encyclopedia of Social Reform
"Seyd, Ernest" in R.H. Inglis Palgrave, editor, 1894-1899, Dictionary of Political Economy [1918 ed.]
Reference to Ernest Seyd case in F.X. Schoonmaker, Silversnake
The Edward Seyd myth, in Reform Club's Sound Currency
Seyd Case referred to in Greenback, 2004

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