ABSTRACT
There is nothing new under the sun, and students of economic history find it relatively easy to prove that the idea of monetary management is about as old as that of the monetary system itself. Examples are quoted of certain States of Ancient Greece which practised monetary management, and with a little effort it is even possible to prove that Ancient Egypt had a managed currency. Monetary management in the modern sense, however, is essentially a post-war development. The monetary systems that existed throughout the nineteenth century and until 1914 were substantially automatic. As we saw in Chapters IV and XVII, however, the automatic character of the monetary system was considerably curtailed after the war. Indeed, the gold standard that existed in most countries after 1925 was to a large degree a managed system. At the same time, a strong movement was afoot demanding the application of a higher degree of management.
