(This part was written in 1952 and first appeared in the 1953
American edition of Yale University Press) The Principle of
Sound Money The Classical Idea of Sound Money The principle of
sound money that guided nineteenth-century monetary doctrines
and policies was a product of classical political economy. It
was an essential part of the liberal program as developed by
eighteenth-century social philosophy and propagated in the
following century by the most influential political parties of
Europe and America. The liberal doctrine sees in the market
economy the best, even the only possible, system of economic
organization of society. Private ownership of the means of
production tends to shift control of production to the hands of
those best fitted for this job and thus to secure for all
members of society the fullest possible satisfaction of their
needs. It assigns to the consumers the power to choose those
purveyors who supply them in the cheapest way with the articles
they are most urgently asking for and thus