Modern monetary systems

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 834582015

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-77707

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Régime des chambres de commerce

Place of publication:: Paris

Publisher:: Libr.-impr. réunies

Year of publication:: 1894

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (390 S)

Collection:: Economics Books

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THE NOTION OF MONEY 177 held to possess an “intrinsic” value and its position as a standard metal is ascribed to this circumstance. The truth is that the value of gold only remains constant when it is transported from one monometallist-gold country to another. Its value is maintained, ~fter it has ceased to be legal currency, only because it enters another country where the system cof free coin=ge and the fact that the monetary unit is defined in terms of a given weight of gold will also make it legal tender currency corresponding to that in the first country owing to the definition of the two units (metallic par). Ultimately there is nothing more than this in its so-called “commercial” rate; the proof is that in a country which possesses a fiduciary circulation convertible into gold but where the export of gold (e.g., Switzerland, Spain, etc.) or its import (e.g., Sweden) are prohibited, a constant ratio of value between its gold currency and foreign gold ceases to exist. On the other hand, it is true that gold is the basis of the monetary system in every mono- metallist-gold country, and other currencies are only held to have value in so far as they are convertible into gold. But the sole reason for this is that gold currency is the only one which is also legal tender currency in a large number of other countries and ensures stable exchanges with them, a situation which, as we have just observed, only arises when gold can be freely imported and exported. Moreover, it should not be assumed that a monetary system which involves the use of a precious metal neces- sarily rests on a metal basis. Spain, for instance, from the end of the 19th century until the outbreak of war only had a circulation of notes and silver écus, with an abundant supply of the latter. Nevertheless the Spanish exchange was never, during this period, governed by fluctuations in silver, and, although notes were in practice convertible into silver écus, they did not derive their value from these écus which were worth much more than the metal. The measure of values, i.e., the standard in Spain, was the peseta, whether it was embodied in silver or paper, and the value of the peseta in relation to foreign currencies varied irregu- larly but independently of the “intrinsic” value of the

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