round. Anybody who had borrowed a thousand pounds the day before this alteration happened would be very greatly benefited. If he were a bootmaker or a merchant or a retail dealer in boots he would find that, his stock of boots having doubled in price, he would only have to hand over half the amount which he would otherwise have calculated upon in order to satisfy his debt. The creditor, on the other hand, would inevitably to the same extent be at a disadvantage, because he would be paid back in money that had lost half its value. Thus currency depreciation is an advantage to debtors and is bad for creditors, while currency appreciation—or a fall in prices—has the contrary effect of putting a bonus into the pockets of creditors who are paid back, or receive interest, in money that has greater buying power than the money that they lent. As a general rule debtors are those who are engaged in active enterprise, production and distribution, industry and commerce. It is part of their business to work on borrowed money, while the creditor class are people who have saved money and rely on its interest to secure the support of themselves and their dependents in their old age, or the representatives of others who have carried out this saving principle in
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