Money and monetary policy in early times
- New York Augustus M. Kelley 1965
- 517 p.
The purpose of this book is to examine from the economic point of view the knowledge which has been accumulating at an ever-increasing rate during the past century concerning money in early times. It aims, in the first place, at an historical account of the emergence of money. In the second place, an attempt has been made to sketch the development of state policy with regard to the control of money from its beginnings, and to correlate policies at different times and places with political and, more especially, economic conditions. The control of monetary policy by governments was thrust into the field of public attention by the war of 1914-18 and the currency inflation of the immediately succeeding years in most European countries. Although in some respects, more particularly in the matter of the use of paper money and credit banking systems, conditions in early times are sharply contrasted with the contemporary situation, it is by no means fruitless to examine the history of the first thousand years of coining and to seek comparison with modern conditions. Indeed, if monetary theory is to be scientific it must be capable of explaining the events of this early period as well as those of the first quarter of the twentieth century. The desire to supply the means of checking our monetary theory and, at the same time, to supply historical background to replace supposititious accounts of primitive conditions has been, therefore, the impelling motive behind the execution of this work.