Publications Of National Monetary Commission Volume 9 PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 edition. Excerpt: ... I have to some extent a personal interest in the matter--that I consider that it is simply impossible and beyond the scope of the task assigned to us to deal with so extensive a programme, based upon theories which would seek to give a new direction to our economic development. "Quite true!" Our duty, as I interpret it, is to deal with certain important, although not momentous, problems relating to the reform of our monetary credit and banking system, it being assumed, as was stated at the time in the introductory address of the imperial secretary, that we are to adhere essentially to the existing gold standard. My attitude as a theorist toward the gold standard is in some respects somewhat skeptical. I have hinted at this here and there, but on the whole I have kept back my scruples. I believe that we are bound to take this condition for granted--I personally have tried as far as possible not to lose sight of this fact--and to consider it our business to remedy or remove certain defects that have manifested themselves in the financial system reared on this foundation, while preserving, I must repeat, the foundation itself. No other course is possible. A part perhaps of what Freiherr von Wangenheim proposed further on could be introduced in some measure into our discussions in connection with Question VI, where we shall have to consider more closely the question of the status of the stock banks and, among other things, also that of the regulation of the deposit business. But in the discussion of these questions it seems to me that it is rather the technical features of the points involved that have to be considered, with reference to which we can then take up the discussion of the individual matters that are to enter into...