Ill

THE RETURN TO GOLD

209

into the real world by means of the bad fairies—always so much more potent than the good—the wicked Ministers of Finance.

For these reasons enlightened advocates ofthe restoration of gold, such as Mr. Hawtrey,do not welcome it as the return of a “natural”currency, and intend, quite decidedly, that itshall be a “managed” one. They allow goldback only as a constitutional monarch, shorn ofhis ancient despotic powers and compelled toaccept the advice of a Parliament of Banks .The adoption of the ideas present in the mindsof those who drafted the Genoa Resolutionson Currency is an essential condition of Mr.Hawtrey’s adherence to gold. He contemplates“the practice of continuous co-operation amongcentral banks of issue” (Res. 3), and an inter-national convention, based on a gold exchangestandard, and designed “with a view to pre-venting undue fluctuations in the purchasingpower of gold” (Res. 11). 1 But he is not infavour of resuming the gold standard irrespec-tive of “whether the difficulties in regard tothe future purchasing power of gold have beenprovided against or not.” “It is not easy,”he admits, “to promote international action,and, should it fail, the wisest course for the timebeing might be to concentrate on the stabilisa-tion of sterling in terms of commodities, ratherthan tie the pound to a metal the vagaries ofwhich cannot be foreseen.” 2

It is natural to ask, in face of advocacy of

1 Monetary Reconstruction, p. 132. 2 Loc. cit. p. 22.