Can Interest‐Bearing Money Circulate? A Small‐Denomination Arkansan Experiment, 1861–63
利用美国内战期间阿肯色州发行大量小面额带息货币的历史案例，检验法律限制理论关于带息货币能否流通的预测，发现小面额带息货币确实能充当主要交换媒介。
Legal restrictions theory suggests that dominance of non‐interest‐bearing currency is possible only because legal impediments prevent financial institutions from offering interest‐bearing alternatives. A viable interest‐bearing medium must be issued in denominations low enough for day‐to‐day use, however, and without historical examples of small‐denomination interest‐bearing issues we cannot properly test whether interest‐bearing currency will circulate as legal restrictions theory predicts. Civil War Arkansas offers a rare instance where large quantities of small‐denomination interest‐bearing money were actually issued, mostly below $5. The results of this Arkansan experiment show that small‐denomination interest‐bearing issues can indeed function as the primary medium of exchange.