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There were fluctuations of gold relative to silver. There were not fluctuations of gold relative to gold, or of silver relative to silver.
by cabalamat 17y ago
There were fluctuations of gold relative to silver. There were not fluctuations of gold relative to gold, or of silver relative to silver.
- roboneal 17y agoYou a projecting modern commodity trading exchange concepts onto history - until the advent of "virtual" trading of gold - there DEFINITELY was fluctuations of the value of gold and silver between countries.
- olefoo 17y agoBut at the time, not all gold coins were the same. A florin from northern italy was not necessarily worth the same as a ducat of identical weight. Different mints formulated their metal differently and counterfeiting was a real and serious problem. The rumour that a king had ordered the adulteration of the currency could cause prices to swing wildly. Asset backed currencies were not some edenic pre-lapsarian device of peace and plenty. As an economic mechanism they have serious problems; in some respects more so than a fiat currency.