Ludwig von Mises on Money and Inflation.pdf - The Ludwig von ...

tants would have to use other figures, but it would not change relations
among individuals. It would be absolutely uninteresting, immaterial, for
people whether they were living in a world with larger or smaller figures
to be used for accounting and bookkeeping. But the way money changes
actually occur in our living world does not correspond to this. e way
in which changes in the quantity of money are really brought about in the
world is different for different people for different things; the changes do not
occur in a neutral way; some people gain at the expense of others. at means,
therefore, that if the quantity of money is increased or doubled it affects
different people differently. It means also that an increase in the quantity
of money doesn’t bring any general improvement of conditions. is is
what the French economist Say pointed out very clearly at the beginning
of the 19th century.
We could deal with this problem from the point of view of the world
market and the World Bank. Assume that there are some people who think
that the best solution for the monetary problem would be a world paper
currency, issued by a world bank or a world institution, a world office,
and so on. And now assume we have such a thing. Many people want to
have it. ey think it would be a wonderful idea. ere would be somewhere,
possibly in China, an office for the whole world. And this office
alone would increase the quantity of money. Yes! But who would get this
additional quantity of money ere is no method of distribution which
would be satisfactory to everybody. Or let us say that the international
bank issuing a world money for all countries wants to increase the quantity
of money because, they say, there are now more people born. All right;
give it to them. But then the question is who gets the additional money
Everybody, every country, would say the same thing: “e quantity we
got is too small for us.” e rich countries will say, “As the per head quota
of money in our country is greater than it is in the poor countries, we
must get a greater part.” e poor country will say, “No, on the contrary.
Because they have already a greater part of money per head quota than we
have, we must get the additional quantity of money.” erefore, all these
discussions of, let us say the Bretton Woods Conference [1944], were absolutely
useless because they did not even approach the situation in which
they could deal with the real problem which, as far as I think, none of the
delegates and none of the home governments that had sent these delegates
even understood. ere will be a tendency toward higher prices in those
countries that are getting this additional quantity and those who receive it
first will be in a position to pay higher prices. So other people will want
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