Μαθήματα νομισματικής ιστορίας

Αντιγράφω επιστολή αναγνώστριας (ιστορικού) με τίτλο “The rich get richer…” που δημοσιεύτηκε στην Εκόνομιστ της 28/1/2023. Περί των αναδιανεμητικών επιδράσεων του πληθωρισμού ο λόγος, αλλά νομίζω πως μια τέτοια ανάλυση είναι φτωχή χωρίς την αναγνώριση των συγκειμένων, ιδίως ως προς την απασχόληση και την αμοιβή της εργασίας, καθώς και σε σχέση με τον ρόλο του χρήματος – τα μαθήματα θα είχαν έτσι μεγαλύτερη αξία και η εμμέσως διατυπωμένη ετυμηγορία θα είχε ισχυρότερο έρεισμα.  

“‘When money dies’ (December 24th) focused on the lessons from inflation of the 1500s. One further contemporary parallel emerging from the 16th-century Scottish context is the uneven impact of inflation across the population. Even in the 16th century, inflation for essential goods outstripped that for luxury items. And wages lagged behind price rises. Accordingly it was the poor who suffered most and the rich who were cushioned by the relatively smaller portions of their budgets devoted to essential items.

For example, in the decade following the replacement of gold and silver in coins with cheaper metals, known as the great debasement, the wages paid to wrights (skilled workers, carpenters or joiners) increased by 25%. But the cost of fabric canvas, used for workers’ clothing, went up by 68%, and ale, the drink of the people, by 50%. At the other end of the market, velvet went up by 41% in price. Wine, the luxury imported tipple of the rich, increased by 13%, but a few years later it was retailing at 20% below its price before the currency debasement. Velvet-clad wine connoisseurs had it far easier than their canvas-sporting, beer-drinking employees.

In the 16th-century context this cushioning of the wealthy from the worst effects of rising prices offers an answer to a puzzling dilemma which transcends that century: why did successive governments, comprising the wealthiest in the land, pursue a policy the effects of which they knew to be inflationary?”

Dr Amy Blakeway
School of History
University of St Andrews
St Andrews, Fife

Για την αντιγραφή

νκ

υγ. Το κείμενο στο οποίο αναφέρεται η αναγνώστρια (‘When money dies’) είναι πράγματι πλουσιότερο περιγραφικώς και αναλυτικώς.