I'm no economist, but my understanding is that inflation was pretty minimal for hundreds of years prior to the late 1800s. Inflation appears, though, to be reas

I'm no economist, but my understanding is that inflation was pretty minimal for hundreds of years prior to the late 1800s. Inflation appears, though, to be reasonably beneficial and (this is totally not economics language) motivates the circulation of money, in moderation – enough so that they have a target for it. There seem to be numerous economic theories and inflation plays a different role in most of them, that I can tell, both good and bad.