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FANCY MONETARY STANDARDS 169
make blunders (and have, in fact, made such blunders
without end in the past, of which we have had so
many illustrations lately in the experience of the United
States, the Argentine Republic, Russia, and other
countries), that a nation which has a good money
should beware of its being tampered with, and espe-
cially should beware of any change in the foundation
-the standard for money. Locke, and other older
economists, went further, and maintained that a change
of standard should never be made. because every change
involves injustice. But without going so far as this, we
may recognize that there are various practical reasons
for not changing lightly or readily-that is, for not
changing for any other reasons than those of over-
whelming necessity.
These considerations apply especiaIly to the standard
(or money in a country like England, where the standard
is the foundation of a fabric of credit, whose extension
and delicacy make the slightest jar apt to produce the
most formidable effects. In their recent arguments
against bimetallists some of my friends have dwelt
very strongly on the importance to us of maintaining
our gold standard, because the standard has appre-
ciated when measured by commodities, and there is a
great deal due to us as a community in gold. But I
should not put the argument that way. 'What impresses
me is that. with our enormous liabilities and credits,
with transactions of all kinds. the ramifications of which
no man can follow out, all based on a gold standard,
we can never tell, when we touch that standard, what
confusion and mischief we may be introducing.
Now, Mr. Williams, if he will forgive my saying so,
does not show in his paper any sense of the gravity of·
a change such as he proposes, and he does not even
try to adduce reasons of overwhelming necessity. All
that he has to say is that the new standard would
probably be a more steady unit of purchasing power
than the present one of gold. I do not agree with him
even on this point, for reasons to be afterwards stated;