B_345_The-Rulers-of-Russia

We new only wish to add the remark that liberty of so false a
nature is greatly hurtful to the true liberty of both rulers and
their subjects. Religion, of its essence, is wonderfully helpful to
the State."
Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII, Libertas
June 20th, 1888.
Praestantissitnum,
APPENDIX V
THE FUNCTIONING OF THE GOLD-STANDARD MONETARY SYSTEM
Lest some of my readers may think that I have insisted too
much upon the disastrous effects of the monetary system associated
with the gold-standard, a few words may be helpful.
Money or token-wealth has been invented, to use St. Thomas's
expression, for the convenience of exchange and as a measure
of things saleable. Thanks to it, families can procure, by the
process of exchange, far more easily than by barter, that sufficiency
of nature's goods or real wealth needed by their members
for a virtuous life. The fact is, however, that the gold-standard
system does not aim at the distribution of socially-produced
wealth but at making money a source of revenue to the issuers
and a means of arriving at the greatest possible control for them
by the creation and perpetuation of debt. As a measure of things
saleable, money is meant to be stable. The yard measure and the
pound avoirdupois may not be altered arbitrarily. Yet "we are in
an age of monetary policy," writes Professor Soddy, "when the
value of it is continually altered by the means well-known to the
banking profession, to make it worth less or more, thus to raise
the price level or to lower it. . , . In all this there is not given a
moment's consideration to the most elementary principles of justice
to the owners of the money, who have a right to receive again
value equivalent to that which they have given up." 1
Arbitrary
*The R6le of Money, p. 85 "A sane money system is one that aims at
keeping in circulation the largest volume of money that can be absorbed
without inflation of the price level ... the principle of control of the
currency of New Zealand should be changed from stability of the exchange
rate with sterling to stability of the internal price level."—(A N. Field, in
Examiner, May, 1939.)
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