ABSTRACT
From a technical point of view inflations of the magnitude experienced in Europe in the post-war period could only have arisen through loss of control over the money supply. In several countries, especially in Germany, Hungary, Poland and Austria, conditions were so deplorable that draconian measures to check inflation with their attendant results in terms of depression and unemployment, would probably have caused a collapse of the social fabric. Technically inflation could have been brought to a halt at any time by resolute policies to check the growth in money supply. For a time governments took advantage of the inflationary potential to ease their own financial problems and encourage the process of reconstruction. Austria’s inflation was much less severe than the German and of shorter duration. Hungary’s inflation was greater than that of Austria but considerably less than either Poland’s or Germany’s. Given Poland’s desperate state after the war it is scarcely surprising that monetary chaos occurred.
