The Gold Standard and the Social Question
Three chapters in the history of money and labor relations. From Follow the Money:
Natural Liberty and Classical Economics
(chapter 11, Follow the Money )
<103>The English authorities' attitude of wilful indifference in the face of currency shortage was more than mere recalcitrance. The mindset of the age was shifting away from the mercantilism of the age of coinage,...
The Automatic Mechanism
(From chapter 12, Follow the Money )
<109>The logic of natural liberty was used to justify the shift to gold in the English economy in the 18th century. One of the gold standard's leading proponents, William Shaw, put the matter bluntly. "The...
The Social Question Unravelled
(From Chapter 13, Follow the Money )
<123>In a well-known passage, John Maynard Keynes provided a lucid picture of the pre-1914 era:
The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products...
