II

INFLATION AND DEFLATION

85

reconciled. Peace on earth to men of goodmeans. A rich man could, after all, enter intothe Kingdom of Heaven—if only he saved. Anew harmony sounded from the celestial spheres.“It is curious to observe how, through the wiseand beneficent arrangement of Providence, menthus do the greatest service to the public, whenthey are thinking of nothing but their owngain ”; 1 so sang the angels.

The atmosphere thus created well harmonisedthe demands of expanding business and theneeds of an expanding population with thegrowth of a comfortable non-business class.But amidst the general enjoyment of ease andprogress, the extent to which the system de-pended on the stability of the money to whichthe investing classes had committed their for-tunes, was generally overlooked; and an un-questioning confidence was apparently felt thatthis matter would look after itself. Investmentsspread and multiplied, until, for the middleclasses of the world, the gilt-edged bonds cameto typify all that was most permanent and mostsecure. So rooted in our day has been theconventional belief in the stability and safetyof a money contract that, according to English law, trustees have been encouraged to embarktheir trust funds exclusively in such trans-actions, and are indeed forbidden, except in thecase of real estate (an exception which is itself

1 Easy Lessons on Money Matters for the Use of Young People.Published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Twelfth Edition, 1850.