Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral Now and Then Will history repeat itself

I was looking at the free ebooks that are available on the Wirral libraries site and came across this book

When Money Dies

This is, I believe, a moral tale. It goes far to prove the revolutionary axiom that if you wish to destroy a nation you must corrupt its currency. Thus must sound money be the first bastion of a society's defence.In 1923, with its currency effectively worthless (the exchange rate in December of that year was one dollar to 4,200,000,000,000 marks), the Weimar Republic was all but reduced to a barter economy. Expensive cigars, artworks and jewels were routinely exchanged for staples such as bread; a cinema ticket could be bought for a lump of coal, and a bottle of paraffin for a silk shirt. In desperation, the Bavarian Prime Minister submitted a Bill to the Reichsrat proposing that gluttony be made a penal offence, his exact definition of a glutton being 'one who habitually devotes himself to the pleasures of the table to such a degree that he might arouse discontent in view of the distressful condition of the population'.Since its first publication in 1975, When Money Dies has become the classic history of these bizarre and frightening times. Weaving elegant analysis with a wealth of eyewitness accounts by ordinary people struggling to survive, it deals above all with the human side of inflation: why governments resort to it, the dismal, corruptive pestilence it visits on their citizens, the agonies of recovery, and the dark, long-term legacy. And at a time of acute economic strain, it provides an urgent warning against the addictive dangers of printing money — shorthand for deficit financing — as a soft option for governments faced with growing unrest and unemploymenT

Don't know about that but with the latest proposal to cut benefits to those in social housing with a spare bedroom, it seems we are heading back to Victorian times.

What next, sell your furniture?

Lol helles

No they will be able to keep any furniture they haven't used as firewood to keep warm.

Those on benefits, with rooms in excess of their needs, will be issued with homeless persons of a sufficient number to satisfy the authorities that the social housing is being used to its fullest extent.

This will ensure that the tax payers money isn't being wasted and help to reduce homelessness at minimum cost to the treasury!

Not sure I fully understand all the implications derekdwc but my father who worked for one of the big banks always said, printing money leads to disaster. Vaguely remember him saying it alters the balance of payments.
Didn't Harold Wilson's government print loads of money? I'm sure they did.

This may help to understand. Just another playing the same game.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23613785-brown-in-final-gamble-to-print-money.do

Germany’s hyperinflation of 1923 remains the most graphic reminder of how a nation can plunge into misery and chaos because its currency is debased.

Just looking at a few articles on the Web, you get a flavour of how bizarre and frightening life became for ordinary people as they saw their savings disappear and prices spiral ever upward.

It was cheaper to paper your walls with banknotes than to buy wallpaper. It was cheaper to burn banknotes in your stove rather than buy firewood. Children used wads of banknotes as building blocks.

1lb of bread cost 3billion marks, 1lb of meat 36billion marks and a glass of beer 4billion marks.

A Berlin couple who were about to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary received an official letter advising them that the mayor, in accordance with Prussian custom, would call and present them with a donation of money. Next morning the mayor, accompanied by several officials in robes, arrived at the couple’s house, and carefully gave them 1,000,000,000,000 marks … which was worth one halfpenny in British money.

Menus in cafes could not be revised quickly enough. A student at Freiburg University ordered a cup of coffee at a cafe. The price on the menu was 5,000 marks. He had two cups. When the bill came, it was for 14,000 marks. ‘If you want to save money,’ he was told, ‘and you want two cups of coffee, you should order them both at the same time.’

A factory worker described payday, which was every day at 11am. ‘A siren sounded, and everybody gathered in the factory forecourt, where a five-ton lorry was drawn up loaded brimful with paper money. The chief cashier and his assistants climbed up on top. They read out names and just threw out bundles of notes. As soon as you had caught one, you made a dash for the nearest shop and bought just anything that was going.’

And so on.

However, in terms of stark figures, Germany’s experience was not the worst. That dubious honour fell to Hungary, where in July 1946 the inflation rate was 41,900,000,000,000,000 per cent, with prices doubling every 15 hours.

The nearest modern equivalent is Zimbabwe, where in November 2008 the inflation rate was 79,600,000,000 per cent, with prices doubling every 24 hours.

We have been warned.