Printing Money vs. Issuing International Bonds

Question

I'm reading Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money and I had a question about the economic difference between printing money vs. selling bonds to foreign entities.

At one point in the book, the author says that much of Southern Civil War effort (in the United States) was funded by issuing Cotton-backed bonds. I.e the south issued bonds that could be converted to Cotton.

The author then points out that the turning point in the war was when the Union army captured New Orleans and setup a naval blockade, which prevented European investors from collecting their cotton.

This ruined the South's ability to sell bonds, and forced them to print money to pay for war expenses, which led runaway inflation.

My question is as follows: In this case, how is issuing bonds better than printing money? Wouldn't foreign bond purchases also lead to inflation, since there would be an influx of money into the south purchasing more goods? Why did the South even bother with issuing bonds, and why couldn't they just print money in the first place.

TheSaint321 · Answer

Bonds are backed by real resources. Money is backed by nothing.

Lets say I'm a British investor. The price of 1 kilo of cotton is 100 British pounds. If I buy a bond for 1 kilo of cotton redeemable in 1 year for 90 pounds then in one year when I redeem the bond and the 1 kilo of cotton is sent to me I can sell it for 100 pounds for a profit of 10 pounds or 10% (100 - 90). The number of pounds in the south has nothing to do with the value of the pound since no new pounds are being created. A southerner with payment in pounds can go to Britain and use the pounds and if anything the transfer of pounds from Britain to the South will cause deflation as the supply of pounds in Britain decreases since they are now in the South.

This is different from the South printing money which actually increases the money supply. If the south has 100K total confederate dollars in circulation which can be used to purchase 1000 arbitrary goods and services then each good can be purchased for 100 confederate dollars. If the south wants to purchase an additional 1000 arbitrary goods and tries to print an additional 100K this leads to inflation as now there are 200K total confederate dollars. The money supply in this instance has expanded whereas it has not in the bonds example.

Printing Money vs. Issuing International Bonds

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