ABSTRACT
Whether the general price-level prevailing in a country be the result of the volume of its monetary circulation, or the inverse relation represent the facts, it is of great importance to consider the relation of high prices or low prices to economic progress and social welfare. It may be said without detailed argument that, provided prices remain steady, whether they be high or whether they be low is of, at best, secondary importance. In relation to trade with other communities the price-level has, it is true, great importance, and the questions depending upon the comparative price-levels in different communities will come up for consideration in due course. Within any one community, however, the expression of prices by means of large numbers or by means of small is, in the main, a question of the choice of the monetary unit. Relative values are not altered by the expression of each individual value in larger numbers, and the relative position of the different members of the community would not be changed if every price were, say, multiplied by ten, the resources, whether accumulated or currently accruing, of each ind vidual in the community being simultaneously increased in the same proportion.
