By setting bounds on money growth, the commodity standard is a solution to the monetary authority's time inconsistency problem, which arises from the fixed wage structure of the economy. If there is a supply shock to the backing commodity, the suspension of the commodity standard may be...

Primitive and Non-metallic Money -- Monetary System of Ancient Asia: China -- Monetary System of the Ancient Regime -- Medieval Debasement and Seigniorage -- Gresham's Law -- Flows of Precious Metals and Prices in Europe -- Rise and Decline of the Global Silver Standard -- Money, Trade, and...

Using newly collected discount rate data for six Swiss cities, we find no evidence of increasing integration during a 30-year period of lightly regulated free banking. We attribute this to two structural issues: banks had incentives to protect their local monopolies, and the inherent instability...