MONEY AND THE MECHANISM OF EXCHANGE 171
possibilities must be accepted as the result likely to be
attained.
The result of an increase in transactions seems quite
likely to be an increase of efficiency of money, for a quickening
 of business activity may well have such a result. But no
general rule can be laid down, for the increase is not,
perhaps, more likely to touch those men or localities, whose
habits give to the money they touch a greater efficiency than
the average, than those of a contrary temperament.
But we have still to introduce the influence of the
employment of credit devices. An increase of business
which touches only those exchanges usually carried through
by means of credit devices would not lead to a demand for
more money, neither would any change of price-level in
those departments of business. But we must keep two
things in mind here. The one is, that changes in price or in
volume of transactions can hardly remain confined to such
transactions as are habitually arranged without the use of
money. A rise of price of commodities in the wholesale
markets, for example, if marked and continued, possibly
even if small, will be reflected in retail transactions, while an
Increase of production involves, almost of necessity, increased
employment of labour and therefore increase of wages.
Thus, even if originating in quarters where credit displaces
money, the effects are transmitted to points where they lead
to a need for more money, the lack of which imposes a
check on the movement.
Is this assumption, of an origin of such a price-change
independent of money influences, an abandonment of the
Proposition? By no means. The price-change may not be
caused by changes in money, but it cannot be sustained
unless such changes have occurred. Moreover, the stimulus
may be based on money-changes, though the first effects are
seen where credit is supreme. In the field of credit itself,
the arguments previously applied to a purely money
€conomy will apply to prove that a rise of price of goods,
exchanged entirely on a credit basis, necessitates an increase
of credit facilities, These may arise from a change in the
Organisation of credit, or from an enlarged basis for credit.