Page:Appreciation and interest.djvu/13



The chief issues in the bimetallic controversy center about the question of justice between debtor and creditor. The bimetallic propaganda succeeds just so far as it spreads a belief that an injustice has been done by the adoption of the gold standard, which the re-adoption of bimetallism would correct.

The question therefore arises, does the appreciation of gold necessarily aggravate debts? Are contracting parties powerless to forestall the gains or losses of an upward or downward moving currency ? It is clear that if the unit of length were changed and its change were foreknown, contracts would be modified accordingly. Suppose a yard were defined (as once it probably was) to be the length of the king's girdle, and suppose the king to be a child. Everybody would then know that the "yard" would increase with age and a merchant who should agree to deliver i,ooo "yards" ten years hence, would make his terms correspond to his expectations. To alter the mode of measurement does not alter the actual quantities involved but merely the numbers by which they are represented.

Hitherto monometallists have usually replied to the argument "gold has appreciated, therefore the debtor