and a hundred years hence. For the consequence of giving the Government a free hand with the printing press was that debauch of currency and credit creation which has already been referred to and will have to be more fully described later. It brought in its train a rise in prices that inflicted great injustice on all who were not able to increase their money incomes, and also upon those who had lent money at a fixed rate of interest or had made long contracts, such as are usual when houses are let, by which the user of an article paid a fixed sum each year for its enjoyment. All these unfortunates found that the money they received brought them in a continually diminishing amount of goods when they tried to buy with it—in other words that paper money did not long possess the same efficiency in providing its holders with what they wanted, as was formerly shown by gold. For the simple reason, that gold cannot be multiplied indefinitely, and paper can; and, Governments being what they are, there is always great danger that a people which adopts a paper currency and so gives its Government the power of printing money without limit, will find that the Government is printing too much and is thus lowering the value of all the money in
Page:Bankers and Credit (1924).pdf/27
