The Case for Gold

Gold has been a central currency from about 600 BC down to the 20th century. From Isaac Newton's recoinage of 1717 to the final closure of the Bretton Woods gold window by President Nixon, it was the pivot of the world exchange system. Gold reserves remain important to central banking. The role of gold in the world's exchange system has been hotly contested by leading economists like John Locke, David Hume and Maynard Keynes - who attacked gold - and Jacques Rueff. Nevertheless, the arguments in favour of gold, which includes the quantity theory of money, have remained scattered. With the assistance of the World Gold Council, this three-volume work seeks to collect all the most important arguments in favour of gold, including such seminal works as David Ricardo's "High price of Bullion" and W. Stanley Jevons's "Money and the Mechanism of Exchange".

Table of Contents:
Volume 1 Gerard de Malynes, 'A Treatise of the Canker of England's Commonwealth' (1601); John Locke, Consequences of the Lowering of Interest, and Raising the Value of Money (1691); David Hume, from Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary (1752); Richard Cantillon, from Essay on the Nature of Trade in General (1755); Henry Thornton, Enquiry into the Nature and Effects of the Paper Credit of Great Britain (1802) Volume 2 Francis Horner, Report, together with Minutes of Evidence, and Accounts, from the Select Committee on the High Price of Gold Bullion (1810); Thomas Robert Malthus, 'Depreciation of Paper Currency' (1811); David Ricardo, High Price of Bullion, a Proof of the Depreciation of Bank Notes (1811); David Ricardo, from Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817); John Stuart Mill, from Principles of Political Economy with Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy (1848); George Goschen, from The Theory of the Foreign Exchanges (1861); W Stanley Jevons, from Money and the Mechanism of Exchange (1875) Volume 3 W Stanley Jevons, from Investigations in Currency & Finance (1884); Carl Menger, 'On the Origins of Money' (1892); Knut Wicksell, from Lectures on Political Economy (1901-6); Ludwig von Mises, from The Theory of Money and Credit (1912); D. H. Robertson, from Money (1922); R G Hawtrey, The Gold Standard in Theory and Practice (1927); Murray N Rothbard, The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar (1962); Jacques Rueff and Fred Hirsch, 'The Role and the Rule of Gold: An Argument' (1965)

Review :
'Edited by William Rees-Mogg, the collection admirably compiles and presents the key ideas behind the historical achievements of the Gold Standard.' - Tim Congdon, Times Literary Supplement 'Over the last thirty years, we have witnessed runaway inflation, a variety of speculative bubbles and a succession of currency crises. Is there no way to escape this mayhem which spreads its misery from the day-labourers of Buenos Aires to the pensioners of New York? In fact, one solution offers itself; an idea so unpopular that only a handful of cranks nowadays even dare consider it. In order to rid the global economy of its chronic instability, we must return to our golden fetters... In an introduction to a recently published collection of historic writings on gold (The Case for Gold, three volumes, published by Pickering & Chatto), William Rees-Mogg lays out the case.' - Edward Chancellor, Prospect