Lessons of History, Part 1: Not a Mention of Money by John Rubino

SOURCE: [SafeHaven] – I’m listening to the audio version of George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I, written by Miranda Carter and brilliantly narrated by Rosalyn Landor. It’s the story of some almost supernaturally dysfunctional governments blundering into a war that seems more rather than less crazy with the passage of time.

Among the many surprising facts from those days (one short century ago):

Most European kings and queens were related. Only “royals” were good enough to marry into the top strata of the aristocracy, so a relatively tiny pool of princes and princesses were traded back and forth like baseball cards. By the late 1800s Britain’s King George, Russia’s Czar Nicholas, and Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm were all grandsons of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. They and their families hung out together on massive yachts and 10,000 acre estates, shooting and drinking and generally behaving dickishly, as humans will when given unnatural amounts of power.

And about that power…most European countries were still monarchies where the king/emperor actually ran things. Britain had, during the 60+ years of Elizabeth’s reign, morphed into a constitutional monarchy where royalty was revered but Parliament made policy. But in Germany and Russia the guys calling the shots (literally and figuratively) were the sons of the guys who called the previous generation’s shots. The Kaiser and Czar ran their respective shows — and each, in his own way, was nuts.

The story of how the neuroses of these tragicomic figures led Europe into Hell is full of unwise foreign wars, domestic repression, secret deals structured by inner demons rather than clear vision, weird facial hair and general stupid rich guy hubris.

But one thing that never comes up is monetary policy. That world was on the Classical Gold Standard, where currencies were simply names for given weights of gold and paper notes were warehouse receipts for gold coins that could be redeemed at any bank.

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