ABSTRACT

Bibliography.—In view of its central importance in a rational theory of money, the problem of the exchange value of money and its fluctuations may well be said to have received scanty treatment in the literature of the subject. The most important writings on the subject date from the first half of the nineteenth century, especially Ricardo’s famous pamphlet, High Price of Bullion, Reply to Mr. Bosanquet, etc., to some extent also Senior’s Lectures on the Cost of Obtaining Money and On the Value of Money, as well as the polemics occasioned by Peel’s second Bank Act of 1844, especially Tooke’s Enquiry into the Currency Principle (also Newmarch’s History of Prices) and Fullarton’s On the Regulation of Currencies, both directed against Peel. The writings of Peel himself and of his followers are of less scientific interest. A very good account of the whole of this dispute is given in Wagner’s most readable work Geld und Kredittheorie der Peelschen Bankacte. In more recent times the problem has scarcely advanced towards a solution. On the contrary, its known difficulties have led most writers to ignore the problem as far as possible and have occasioned the most fantastic and nugatory attempts at explanation. Perhaps the most interesting work of recent times on this problem is the Report of the Gold and Silver Commission, 1887 (3 vols.).