This chapter examines the development of Keynes's monetary thought in the context of Britain's return to the gold standard (opposed by Keynes) in 1925 and his unsuccessful attempt to develop a theory of macroeconomic fluctuations in his Treatise on Money. Keynes, who had predicted that rejoining...

R. G. Hawtrey, like J. M. Keynes, was a Cambridge graduate in mathematics, an Apostle, influenced by the Cambridge philosopher G. E. Moore, and connected to the Bloomsbury Group. Though eventually overshadowed by Keynes, Hawtrey, after publishing Currency and Credit in 1919, was in the front...

This chapter considers the law of reflux and its alternative interpretations: (1) as a monetary policy rule for stabilizing the price level and (2) as rule for individual banks to follow to remain liquid. The chapter argues that Adam Smith endorsed only the second interpretation, and that the...

This chapter explores the different explanations of Ricardo and Thornton for the depreciation of sterling after convertibility of sterling into gold was suspended during the Napoleonic Wars. Ricardo held that only overissue by the Bank of England could have caused depreciation of sterling while...

This chapter discusses four areas of monetary theory on which the ideas of Smith and Hume have left their imprint: (1) the overissue of bank liabilities, (2) the price-specie-flow mechanism (PSFM), (3) the need for a lender of last resort in a competitive banking system, (4) real-bills doctrine...

Hayek's early writings on business-cycle theory and the Great Depression argued that cyclical downturns, including that of 1929-1931 were caused by unsustainable elongations of the capital structure caused by bank-financed investment exceeding voluntary saving. Believing that monetary expansion...

This chapter compares alternative explanations of the Great Depression: the Monetarist explanation of (Friedman and Schwartz,.A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960, Princeton University Press, 1963), the Austrian explanation of Hayek and (Robbins,.The Great Depression, Macmillan,...

While Hayek's Prices and Production established his reputation as a business-cycle theorist, Sraffa's 1932 review of the book helped turn professional opinion against him. A key criticism of Sraffa was that Hayek's conception of a natural rate of interest, reflecting only real relationships, was...