ABSTRACT
It is a popular belief that all monetary reformers are necessarily radicals, and that the orthodox camp is opposed to every kind of monetary reform proposals. The main object of the orthodox school is to restore the monetary system that operated before the crisis, or preferably before the war. There is, however, one monetary reform proposal which claims a marked departure from the old system and yet has actually been elaborated in the orthodox camp. Although the object of the reform is to maintain the orthodox gold standard, the methods proposed to that end are none the less monetary reform measures. The system in question is that of “consistent deflation”, a system elaborated entirely by practical men. While theoretical experts were debating, the statesmen of the Gold Bloc evolved a new system without any theoretical background. For some time the system did not even possess a name, but in the course of the budget debate in the Dutch parliament in July 1935, it became known under the name of “consistent deflation”.
