Money - The Decisive Factor -- Britain’s Handicap in the Economic Race With Russia

Foreword. Preface to Second Edition. Chapter I. The Background. The problem of the 20th century--Material progress of Communism--Alternative for the West--Measure- less reward or supreme disaster?--The Tory and Socialist solutions--Problem of the Trade Cycle-- What Adam Smith said--What has gone wrong? Chapter II. A Brief History of Money. Earliest exchanges--From weights to coins--The ancient world--Elizabethan England--Blondeau's Mill--The end of an era. Chapter III. The Birth of Modern Money. The advent of paper--Goldsmiths to bankers--The Bank of England--From paper money to credit--The gold standard and the trade cycle--Ricardo and Torrens--Victorian England and the gold standard. Chapter IV. What Money Is. War finance 1914-18--Deflation and unemployment of the 20's and 30's--End of the Great Depression-- The Second World War and inflation--The Cohen Committee--The Radcliffe Report--The present financial system: why it fails. Chapter V. What Money Should Be. The proper function of money--Proposals for reform --The prerogative of the State--Goods and money-- Stability of the Price Level--Arguments for a Com- modity Standard--A logical evolutionary step-- Guernsey and other monetary experiments--Reality. Chapter VI. International Trade. Origins--Merchant Bankers--Foreign Investment-- The pursuit of 'favourable' trade balances--Creditors and debtors--Purpose of exports--Trade and invest- ment--The great loan to Mars! Chapter VII. Conclusions. Economist, old and new--The monetary system and the trade cycle--A detached view of money--Benefits of Commodity Money--Ignorance the barrier to change--Need for education in economics--The race with Communism--Money, a self-imposed handicap --Equilibrium in our time. Index.