Page:Bankers and Credit (1924).pdf/218

 (Collins, 1922) argues for a currency of which each unit shall stand for a "true credit" and be a certificate of delivery—"a just demand to the return of an equivalent for what has been given up to be consumed by others." It will be noted that his expressions are somewhat vague, but his book is dignified by a "Foreword" from Professor Irving Fisher. Mr. Melrose contends, very truly, that his certificate money "is wholly within human control and only requires strict honesty and the aid of reasonable precautions to eliminate fluctuations entirely." But these requirements are, at present, rather a large order; and in the matter of money human control has not, in the last nine years, covered itself with glory.

An original touch in the attack on the gold standard is provided by Mr. Chas. P. Isaac who, in The Menace of Money Power (Jonathan Cape, 1921), implies that it is the cause of bad weather and bad harvests. He says in a Note to page 110: "It is interesting to note that, while bad harvests are usually thought to be the cause of financial crises, the truth seems to be that credit restrictions generally precede had harvests. The harvests prior to the credit restriction of 1826 (when notes under £5 were prohibited) were exceptionally abundant. Those following the Act of 1833,