Money

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 836084659

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-28892

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Ricardo, David

Title:: Oeuvres complètes

Place of publication:: Paris

Publisher:: Guillaumin

Year of publication:: 1847

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XLVIII, 752 S)

Collection:: Economics Books

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rh MONEY any considerable and rapid change in the currency part of the want for the precious metals, especially gold, comes from change in the policy of governments. At one moment a government will accumulate enormous sums in gold to impress its subjects or its enemies with an appearance of solvency, and a few years after it will spend the whole. For a century a government will prohibit the issue of notes under £5 and prescribe that gold must be kept against all notes issued above a total of £20,000,000 or so, and then will itself issue £1 and 10s. notes and multiply the issue by six without increasing the reserve at all. Some find a great difficulty at this point. They say they can appreciate in the abstract the argument that increased want for coin and for the metal of which the coin is composed must tend to raise the value of both the coin and the uncoined metal, but that they cannot see how the result comes about. If more gold is wanted for dental plates, it seems reasonable to expect that more will have to be paid for it, but then it is paid for in gold sovereigns, and cannot be worth more than before in them, for the two are the same thing; so, too, if more coin is wanted it is all very well to expect it to rise in value, but how can it, seeing that you only give other money for it, which money is equivalent to it ? The answer is that we do not in fact buy gold with gold, or coin with coin or even with money. We obtain the gold or coin we want by giving other commodities or services in exchange for them. If I, a private person, wish to increase my average holding of coin from £5 to £10, I cannot do it without somehow or other sacrificing, giving up, not money but other goods or services. I must work harder and earn more, or I must reduce my expenditure, or I must reduce my savings and consequently have

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