Gold and the Gold Standard.pdf

GOLD IN ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL TIMES
In the Greek world there were, on occasions, official
ratings of the coins of one metal in terms of those
of the others. Ratings were changed from time to
time and recoinages were made, to prevent a cheaper
or overrated metal from driving out of circulation ,a
dearer or underrated one, under the force of what we
now call Gresham's law.!
About the beginning of the fourth century B.C.,
we find a case of monetary debasement suggestive
of our American debasement of 1933 to 1934. 2
Dionysius, Tyrant of Syracuse, who had borrowed
heavily from his citizens and ,was being hard pressed
for repayment, directed that all the coins in the city
should be brought to him, under penalty of death.
He then restamped the coins and gave to each
drachma the value of two drachmas. By this debasement
he was enabled to pay 'off the original
loan and, at the same time, repay the money that
he had ordered to be brought to the mint. 3
Shortly after the death of Alexander, the unified
Attic monetary system, which prevailed throughout
most of his empire, began to disintegrate. Concerning
what Jollowed, down to the time of the conquest of
the Greek world by the Romans, M. Rostovtzeef says :4
1 The principle of Gresham's law appears to have been known in ancient
Greece. Aristophanes, writing about 405 B.C., said in Frogs, "In our Republic
bad citizens are preferred to good. Just as bad money circulates while good
money disappears." For a brief explanation of Gresham's law, see pp.135'-136,
note.
'l Cf.pp. 128-130.
3 BULLOCK, CHARLES JESSE, Economic Essays, p. 508.
4 ROSTOVTZEEF, M .., The Social and Economic History of tke Hellenistic
World, p. 1291.
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