Currency problems old and new

Abstract

There must be an extraordinary complexity in a system which turns so many that study it off the right path and leaves them floundering in quagmires of absurdities. The persistency with which these attacks are made, the unbroken line of knight-errants which every generation sees rushing forth with lance in rest tilting at windmills in their efforts to overthrow it, may well cause doubts to arise in our minds that perhaps after all there may be some grave defects in a system which has aroused so much hostility, and that we, more fortunate than our predecessors, may slay the dragon and release the beautiful damsel from captivity. Observing that those who plunge into this subject quickly lose themselves in the mazes which surround it, I have decided to enter by the gate where the road commences, and ask you to refresh your memories by briefly considering with me such old time-worn subjects as the theory of exchange and value and the functions of money. By adopting this procedure I hope we may be able to throw fresh light upon but half-revealed truths and so straighten out the crooked road we have to traverse.