Abstract
From a new data set, we infer time series of term structures of yields on US federal bonds during the gold standard era from 1791-1933 and use our estimates to reassess historical narratives about how the US expanded its fiscal capacity. We show that US debt carried a default risk premium until the end of the nineteenth century when it started being priced as an alternative safe-asset to UK debt. During the Civil War, investors expected the US to return to a gold standard so the federal government was able to borrow without facing denomination risk. After the introduction of the National Banking System, the slope of the yield curve switched from down to up and the premium on US debt with maturity less than one year disappeared. JEL classification: E31, E43, G12, N21, N41