Page:Bankers and Credit (1924).pdf/178

 these things are very relevant in view of the now fashionable doctrine of economic salvation through Bank Rate and also because the Bank of England and the Government are often unjustly accused of having produced by means of their dear money policy the depression and unemployment from which we are still suffering. The only certain effect of their dear money policy was that the poor old taxpayer had to pay a few millions more than he need have done, because the authorities saw fit, in order to cure the country of a naughty fit of gambling, to issue Treasury Bills on terms which were more expensive than they need have been. What really stopped the feverish activity of trade and the mad rise in prices—which was partly due to the fact that in order to secure delivery people got into a habit of bidding for two or three times as much stuff as they wanted—was the discovery by the consuming public that it could not stand the pace, and its determination to stop buying until prices had stopped rising.

This "consumers' strike" began in America and was imitated, with less definite organization but with equal determination, in this country; but it was the Far East that first reminded the rest of the world that rising prices were not a necessary part of the scheme of the universe.