International trade

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1758394757

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-136209

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Taussig, Frank William http://d-nb.info/gnd/120199459

Title:: International trade

Place of publication:: New York, NY

Publisher:: Macmillan

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: XXI, 425 Seiten; graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part II. Problems of verification

Collection:: Economics Books

210 INTERNATIONAL TRADE Differing widely from the monetary systems of the English-speak- ing countries are those of the Continent of Europe. In them also banking operations and currency supplies are intertwined, but in another way and with consequences not the same. The use of deposits and checks is small as compared with the English-speaking countries ; a difference which alone entails fundamental differences in the working of the entire monetary mechanism. A representative case for the Continent — representative, that is, for the purpose of the present inquiry — is, or rather was, that of France. With a specie standard and with specie convertibility (conditions happily so long maintained, and presumably to be restored in the future) the circulating medium consisted of gold, Bank of France notes, and silver in the form of the over-valued “limping” 5 franc pieces and of subsidiary coin. The silver is for our purposes negligible, being virtually fixed, moderate in amount, a passive element.! The gold and the Bank of France notes were the active elements, and they were also the flexible elements. The Bank’s notes were not restricted in amount, or regulated as regards the conditions of issue. There was indeed a maximum, but it was never permitted to operate as a real restriction. A large amount of gold coin was in every-day circulation, and, what was more important, a great store was constantly held in the vaults of the Bank of France. A drain of gold for foreign remittance was easily met from the Bank’s holdings; an inflow of gold from abroad was as easily absorbed in those holdings. The varying internal calls for cash, on the other hand, were usually met by notes paid out over the counter, mainly in the course of dealings with financial and commercial institutions. Internal movements of specie, out of the Bank and into it, tho subject to seasonal shifts and occa- sionally to commercial vicissitudes, showed no marked changes except over long periods of time. The Bank’s great stores of gold served as a reservoir, mitigating and smoothing the effect of the one irregular factor, the international flow of gold. Its large 1 T doubt whether the possibility of sending the 5 franc pieces to and fro between the countries of the Latin Union should lead to any significant qualification of this statement.

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