A Booklet about the Gold Standard
An interesting little booklet, entitled “All About the Gold Standard,” by Lawrence Ludford, has recently been published, at 1s., by Newhall Press, Birmingham.
In general, it is well written and clearly expressed, but the writer appears to be unaware of the class basis of society, and fails into the old trap of speaking of England and other countries as it the whole of the people in one country had the same interest hi whatever policy was pursued.
We are told that “it requires but little thought to see that gold must be better distributed in the countries of the world normally using the gold standard are all to return to it, and if gold is to be used in the best interests of the industry and commerce of the world.” This phraseology is characteristic of some of the muddle-headed economists who are supposed to be our guides. A first comment is that it requires something more than thought to accomplish this re-distribution of gold. Does Mr. Ludford think that, because he says that gold should be better distributed, the American capitalists will oblige him by exporting some of it to European and Asiatic banks? “In the best interests of the industry and commerce of the world” is equally vague. It is time the author realised that each individual is guided in his actions primarily by his own self-interest, and that the “industry and commerce of the world” are in reality nothing but a combination of the interested actions of capitalists and capitalist undertakings in each country. If, therefore, he thinks it better in the interests of each capitalist undertaking that gold should be better distributed, it is for him to show to the American and French capitalists that it is in their interest to purchase as much foreign goods as possible and to invest their money in undertakings in foreign countries. Apart from Germany, whose industry is already heavily mortgaged to British and American capitalists, it is not clear where they could do this with safety to themselves, and if they could have done so, there is not much doubt but that they would have done it without waiting for Mr. Ludford’s advice.
He remarks again on page 26 that the huge store of gold acquired by America has not benefited that country. Doubtless he refers to the fart of the 10,000,000 unemployed in the States. Evidently it has not benefited the workers, but someone must be the owners of this gold, and presumably they must find some satisfaction in keeping it, or they would chuck a few millions about the world in order to oblige the theorists of the “mal-distribution of gold” school.
Some play is made of Winston Churchill’s statement that “the gold has been dug up out of a hole in Africa and put down in another hole that is even more inaccessible, in Europe and in America.” We wonder, if Mr. Churchill had £1,000,000 surplus cash and had satisfied his every want and all new avenues of investment were doubtful, whether he would take the advice of some economist who told him that in the interests of the industry and commerce of the world he should send it abroad. We rather think that Mr. Churchill would prefer to keep it in the bank. This is just the position of the American capitalists and bankers who are to all intents and purposes the owners of the scapegoat gold.
The example of the pre-war British bankers and financiers, who “understood the rules of the gold standard game,” is held up as an example to American bankers and financiers. The author says that British exports exceeded imports before the War, and the balance was used to “create credit.” This is another of those vague phrases used to delude the workers. It means that the British capitalists invested some of their profits in foreign enterprises. In other words, they invested part of the surplus value created by British workers in the colonies and in South America, etc. The author continues : “Events have carried a portion of the former power of England’s bankers and financiers into the hands of others, and their successors have not understood the game as they understood it.” But all good things come to an end, even for the capitalists, and as many of the profitable fields of investment have for the moment dried up. it is unlikely that they will follow the advice of an economist who tells them to “play the gold standard game” and invest their money abroad. What should they invest it in ? Let Mr. Ludford supply the answer.
We are given a real inkling into the minds of the master class when we are told on page 30 that “if, when England returns to the gold standard, she stabilises her £ again at 20s., it is unlikely that she will do so until domestic prices and wages have been brought to the same level as those ot the rest of the world.”
It is of no interest to the workers whether a country is on or off the gold standard. The gold in the French and U.S. banks represents some of the surplus wealth wrung from the workers and appropriated bv the master class. No manipulation of currencies will improve the lot of the workers, whose only hope, under capitalism, is for work, work, and still more work. Whilst some of the workers are tearing their guts out every day of the week, the others are ekeing out a bare subsistence on a miserly dole.
The cause of the misery of the workers is the ownership by one class of the means of production. Let the workers organise to capture political power and appropriate the means of production, and the miseries and indignities which they suffer under capitalism will come to an end once and for all.
R. M.