Modern monetary systems

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1753210836

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-128414

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Nogaro, Bertrand http://d-nb.info/gnd/117039713

Title:: Modern monetary systems

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: King

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: XII, 236 S.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part I. Modern monetary systems and their operation

Collection:: Economics Books

24 MODERN MONETARY SYSTEMS anyone desiring to sell silver on the London market at a price considerably higher than that given by the legal ratio of the Latin Union would have elicited the following reply from an intending purchaser : “I shall import it at my own expense ; in the end it will be cheaper.” Thus the possi- bility of drawing on the stocks of bimetallist countries fixed a maximum price for silver, at any rate so long as these stocks did not approach a point of exhaustion. Conversely, during the same period anyone holding silver who was offered a price for his bullion considerably lower than that given by the legal ratio could reply: “At your price I should prefer to take it to a mint, in Paris or Brussels, for instance.” And this reply held good so long as there was vacant space in the mints. A decisive influence on price stability must therefore have necessarily been exerted by the limits imposed by Bimetallism upon the conditions of the silver marke:. Hence the following observations may be made at once without attempting to draw all the theoretical conclusions which in our view follow from the experience of 1gth- century Bimetallism. Contrary to the expectations of the legislators of the year XI, it was possible for nearly three-quarters of a century to maintain the legal ratio between gold and silver without modification in France and without important changes in other bimetallist countries. Internally, there was never a moment when a 20-franc louis could not be exchanged for four silver crowns. Moreover, even outside bimetallist countries and in particular in London where the world market for silver was situated, the value of silver expressed in terms of gold only oscillated very slightly about the point given by the legal French ratio. Thus, in the light of the above considerations, the facts show that the silver market was strangled by bimetallism ; and the right of the public authorities to fix the respective prices of the two chief monetary metals began to be exercised at the very moment when they thought proper to abandon the attempt. It may be added that the monetary legislation of France

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