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ESSAYS IN PERSUASION

PART

expense of the latter is, fortunately perhaps, theline of least resistance.

The restoration of the gold standard (whetherat the pre-war parity or at some other rate)certainly will not give us complete stability ofinternal prices, and can only give us completestability of the external exchanges if all othercountries also restore the gold standard. Theadvisability of restoring it depends, therefore,on whether, on the whole, it will give us thebest working compromise obtainable betweenthe two ideals.

The advocates of gold, as against a morescientific standard, base their cause on thedouble contention that in practice gold hasprovided and will provide a reasonably stablestandard of value and that in practice, sincegoverning authorities lack wisdom as often asnot, a managed currency will, sooner or later,come to grief. Conservatism and scepticismjoin arms—as they often do. Perhaps super-stition comes in too; for gold still enjoys theprestige of its smell and colour.

The considerable success with which goldmaintained its stability of value in the changingworld of the nineteenth century was certainlyremarkable. After the discoveries of Australia and California it began to depreciate danger-ously, and before the exploitation of SouthAfrica it began to appreciate dangerously. Yetin each case it righted itself and retained itsreputation.

But the conditions of the future are not those