ABSTRACT
As stated in our last Bulletin, A Midsummer Night’s Dream of 1928 is, so far as we are concerned, the prologue to Some Facts of 1929-1932 and After. We are giving it last instead of fi rst for the following reasons:— In the fi rst place, we wanted to put forward certain facts as soon as possible in order to give our readers the opportunity of picking up some good gold-mining shares before prices rose any farther. In effect, the suspension of gold payments by the United States of America, coming as it did whilst the Bulletin in question13 was being multigraphed, showed that there was no time to lose and amply justifi ed our “visions of the dollar . . . going to a discount in relation to gold.” We may add that more than one of our readers, acting on that Bulletin, and taking advantage of the sharp recession in the prices of gold-mining shares resulting from the temporary scare caused by America going “off” gold, invested substantial amounts in the best Rand mines. Secondly, in moving over the border of recognized economic territory into the realm of dreams, we knew that we should incur the scorn, if not the wrath, of quite a number of people. In fact, we felt that action of this kind was bound to be regarded as an unwarrantable adventure by some, and as an illegitimate incursion by others. Neither were we at all sure that Bunyan, the dreamer of Pilgrim’s Progress, or even Dante, the dreamer of The Divine Comedy, would approve our behaviour. In these circumstances, we thought that A Midsummer Night’s Dream of 1928 would be more acceptable, as well as easier to relate in a dreamy style, to people who already had before them our presentation of certain relevant facts that had occurred in subsequent years-which facts, we believe, suggest that “the rise in the value of gold since 1929 may not have been altogether a normal economic development.”14 To the scornful, and to those who deny everything about dreams, we wish to point out that this dream should at least be instructive to theorists and others who pin their faith to such widely different things as free trade, protection, emergency currencies, state ownership of the banks, balanced budgets . . . We confess that, for obvious reasons, we have deliberately coloured the dream, and that for the
same reasons the characters are as fi ctitious as we can make them. We certainly hope no gentleman will feel that any reference is being made to him.
