15½/1.

This is coolbert:

War is bad for the economy?

For a variety of reasons - - this is so?

Here is an instance that seems to indicate this is so.

That war indemnity as paid by the French to the German in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War - - 1870 had as a consequence the destruction, intended or otherwise, of a monetary system that had served the world very well for over FOUR HUNDRED YEARS!! A war-indemnity, paid in GOLD and gold-backed currency, throwing the world economic system into chaos?

Silver and silver-backed currency, used by traders for centuries, the value of silver suffering a "nose-dive" with severe ramifications for international trade, as a result of WAR!

"The silver standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed weight of silver. The silver specie standard was widespread from the fall of the Byzantine Empire [1453] until the 19th century . . . silver . . . coins played the role of an international trading currency for nearly four hundred years."

Measures, the indemnity, designed to cripple the economy of France for three decades, had a world-wide consequence that was not anticipated? A shock felt across the international trading community from which the value of silver did not recover?

Gold and gold-backed currency, the sudden influx of wealth into Prussia and the German Empire, creating a situation resulting in trauma on a world-wide scale! Four hundred years of economic and currency stability no longer valid to the same degree!

"Since the time that silver was discovered by the Spanish in the new world in the 16th, until the latter half of the 19th century, the value of gold in relation to silver, maintained a relatively stable ratio of 15½/1. The reason for the subsequent sharp decline in the relative value of silver to gold has been attributed to Germany's decision to cease minting the silver Thaler coins in 1871 . . . following the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian war, Bismarck exacted one thousand million dollars in gold indemnity, and then proceeded to move Germany towards a new gold standard"

The actions of Bismarck and the Prussians had unintended consequences? Merely the thought was to enrich Prussia and the German Empire while crippling the French? NOT to destroy or throw into impossibly chaotic conditions an international monetary system that had served the world admirably so for FOUR HUNDRED YEARS?

But this did happen!

C'est le vie!

coolbert.