The Theory of Money and Credit - Ludwig von Mises [193]
[22] Thus, in the Compte rendu for 1898 (pp. 12 f.): "Si nous nous efforçons de conserver de grandes disponibilités métalliques et de les ménager le mieux possible, nous ne devons pas non plus perdre de vue les intérêts du commerce et lui refuser les moyens de payement qu'il réclame pour les besoins les plus légitimes, c'est-à-dire pour l'approvisionnement du marché français."
[23] See my article Das Problem gesetzlicher Aufnahme der Barzahlungen in Osterreich-Ungarn, p. 1017. If the Austro-Hungarian Bank were to follow the example of the Bank of France in this or some other way it would achieve an exactly opposite result to that achieved by the French institution. Like that of the Bank of France, its action would restrict not merely the efflux but also the influx of gold. In France, the creditor nation, this means something very different from what it means in Austria, the debtor nation. In France, restriction of the importation of capital (which would only exceptionally occur) is unobjectionable; in Austria, the country that is dependent on constant importation of capital from abroad, it would have quite a different effect. The fact that there was a possibility of difficulties in subsequently repatriating the capital would mean that a greater gap than otherwise would have to occur between the Viennese and the foreign rates of interest before capital would be sent to Austria, and this would mean that the rate of interest in Austria would always be higher. The fact, on the other hand, that the export of Austrian short-term capital would also not be profitable except when there was a greater gap than otherwise between the home and foreign rates would not counteract the above disadvantage, because the question of capital exportation from Austria-Hungary to western countries very seldom arises.
[24] See Koch, op. cit., p. 79; Die Reichsbank 1876-1900 (Berlin, 190l), p. 146.
[25] See Obst, Banken und Bankpolitik (Leipzig, 1909), pp. 90 f.; Hertz, "Die Diskont und Devisenpolitik der österreichisch-ungarischen Bank," Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltung 12 (1903): 496.
[26] See Koch, op. cit., pp. 79 ff.; Hertz, op. cit., p. 521; Spitzmüller, "Valutareform und Währungsgesetzgebung," in Oesterreichischen Staatswörterbuch, 2d ed., vol. 2, p. 300.
[27] See also Proebst, Die Grundlagen unseres Depositen-und Scheckwesens (Jena, 1908), pp. 1 ff.
[28] It is only in very recent years that views on this point in dominant circles have begun slowly to change.
Part Four: Monetary Reconstruction
Chapter 21. The Principle of Sound Money
1. The Classical Idea of Sound Money. 2. The Virtues and Alleged Shortcomings of the Gold Standard. 3. The Full-Employment Doctrine. 4. The Emergency Argument in Favor of Inflation.
1 The Classical Idea of Sound Money
The principle of sound money that guided nineteenth-century monetary doctrines and policies was a product of classical political economy. It was an essential part of the liberal program as developed by eighteenth-century social philosophy and propagated in the following century by the most influential political parties of Europe and America.
The liberal doctrine sees in the market economy the best, even the only possible, system of economic organization of society. Private ownership of the means of production tends to shift control of production to the hands of those best fitted for this job and thus to secure for all members of society the fullest possible satisfaction of their needs. It assigns to the consumers the power to choose