Holländische Wirtschaftsgeschichte

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1744885710

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-117895

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Baasch, Ernst http://d-nb.info/gnd/117692018

Title:: Holländische Wirtschaftsgeschichte

Place of publication:: Jena

Publisher:: Fischer

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: VI, 632 S.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS 211 holdings of the metal, coupled with its power to issue more or less of notes as commercial transactions varied, enabled it to maintain its rate of discount at a singularly stable level. And that stability was a matter of deliberate policy. The dominant place of the Bank in the general credit and financial transactions of the coun- try — its position as preéminently a bankers’ bank, buttressed by its monopoly of note issue and its large “encaisse ” — enabled it to impart stability not only to its banking policy but to the entire monetary and credit structure of the country. As regards sensitiveness, it thus appears that France was in a situation by no means the same as that of Great Britain and the other deposit-using countries. What with the large circulation of actual gold, and the strong position and fixed policy of her great Bank, there was sluggishness in the response to an international movement of specie. True, that movement was watched with interest and even with concern by the French financial community. There was a steady disposition to influence it in the direction of promoting the inflow of gold. But it was not allowed to impinge quickly on discount rates, bank operations, bank credits. Nor could any foreign gold movement serve to increase or decrease effectively the total circulating medium, except over long periods of time. As compared with the total gold in France — that in circulation plus the Bank of France’s holdings — the import or export of the metal in any one year, or over several years, was a small matter. No doubt, gold was the dominant factor in the French monetary system. A steadily continuing increase or decrease of the coun- try’s gold could not fail to have its effect on prices. Domination thus there was, even tho not sensitiveness. But the situation serves to bring into sharp relief a factor which Ricardo and his followers habitually neglected — the element of time. Given time, a country whose circulating medium consists solely or mainly of gold must find its prices vary with changes in the gold supply. But the time required for any measurable effect on prices may be long ; and while the long-drawn-out process is in course of opera- tion, anv number of other factors may also come into operation,

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