What Has Government Done to Our Money?

Preface by Jörg Guido Hülsmann

1. Introduction by Murray Rothbard
2. Money in a Free Society
1. The Value of Exchange
2. Barter
3. Indirect Exchange
4. Benefits of Money
5. The Monetary Unit
6. The Shape of Money
7. Private Coinage
8. The Proper Supply of Money
9. The Problem of Hoarding
10. Stabilize the Price Level?
11. Coexisting Moneys
12. Money-Warehouses
13. Summary
3. Government Meddling With Money
1. The Revenue of Government
2. The Economic Effects of Inflation
3. Compulsory Monopoly of the Mint
4. Debasement
5. Gresham’s Law and Coinage
6. Summary: Government and Coinage
7. Permitting Banks to Refuse Payment
8. Central Banking: Removing the Checks on Inflation
9. Central Banking: Directing the Inflation
10. Going Off the Gold Standard
11. Fiat Money and the Gold Problem
12. Fiat Money and Gresham’s Law
13. Government and Money
4. The Monetary Breakdown of the West
   • Phase I: The Classical Gold Standard, 1815–1914
   • Phase II: World War I and After
   • Phase III: The Gold Exchange Standard (Britain and the United States) 1926–1931
   • Phase IV: Fluctuating Fiat Currencies, 1931-1945 …
   • Phase V: Bretton Woods and the New Gold Exchange Standard (the United States) 1945–1968
   • Phase VI: The Unraveling of Bretton Woods, 1968–1971
   • Phase VII: The End of Bretton Woods: Fluctuating Fiat Currencies, August–December, 1971
   • Phase VIII: The Smithsonian Agreement, December 1971–February 1973
   • Phase IX: Fluctuating Fiat Currencies, March 1973–?

The Case for a 100% Gold Dollar

• Part 1
• Part 2