Policy Reform Rankings
Marshall’s desire for price level stability influenced his ranking of alternative monetary arrangements according to their ability to attain that goal. Worst of all was the monometallic gold standard. The annual flow output of the metal was but a tiny fraction of the existing stock. This meant that the stock supply of monetary gold in the closed world economy adjusted too slowly to changes in the demand for it. Prices fluctuated as a result.
Not much better was bimetallism (Marshall 1887, 193-6). It offered one small advantage: Provided gold and silver both remained in circulation, the value of money would vary with the mean values of the two metals instead of with the more variable value of one of them alone. But bimetallism suffered from one overriding defect: The fixed mint gold price of silver easily could overvalue one of the metals and drive it from