ABSTRACT
Critical to research on the monetary history of the United States is availability of a monetary base series that is consistent, complete in coverage, and continuous over a long period. It is also important to have a balance-of-payments series with these same properties. Furthermore, the balance-of-payments series should be ‘monetary’ in nature, reflecting the intimate relationship between the monetary base and balance of payments. Notwithstanding the pioneering research of Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz, and the follow-up work of their students and others, these series do not exist. The main objective of this article is to develop these monetary base and balance-of-payments series. The series can be used for new historical explorations and also for possible amendments of hitherto unchallenged results of previous investigations. Some examples are provided in the article, and the series are tabulated for further use by researchers. 1
