Early modern Italian textile workers would find their pay in silver reduced, while their products still commanded a gold price on the international market for luxuries. This is one of the reasons why theorists such as Milton Friedman considered a bimetallic standard inherently more stable than a monometallic (gold-based) regime.
在这一系统中，银币相对于金币的贬值将压低实际工资，提升竞争力。近代早期的意大利纺织工人发觉他们的银币工资缩水了，而他们的产品仍然在国际奢侈品市场上保持坚挺的金币价格。这也就是为什么某些理论家如米尔顿·弗里德曼认为，双金属本位制比单金属本位（金本位）制具有更大的内在稳固性。