ABSTRACT
The British empire currency declaration, in the memorable passage just quoted, put an end for all time to this subordination of industry to the claims of finance. Finance in future must be the handmaid of industry, not its arbitrary and tyrannical oppressor. The British empire currency declaration confirmed the Ottawa policy of raising the wholesale price level, and is much more definite than the Ottawa monetary report on the question of stabilisation when a remunerative price level has been attained. The Ottawa currency system severely curtailed the freedom of the banking system to issue and manage bank money purely for its own convenience. The system inaugurated at Ottawa has now been in operation for over two years, and has coincided with a remarkable emergence of Britain from a long period of industrial stagnation and depression. The prosperity of the earlier period was wilfully destroyed by a blind and doctrinaire recession to an obsolete and outworn system of currency.
