of a non-monetary commodity) is that the value of money is only as valuable as the specie backing it. When worldwide gold production was low in the 1870 s and 1880 s, the money supply grew slowly, leading to a general deflation. This situation changed radically in the 1890 s following the discovery of gold in Alaska and in South Africa. The result was rapid money growth and inflation up until the outbreak of World War I. Furthermore, linking currencies to gold did not totally restrain governments from manipulating the value of their currencies. First, in order to finance expenditures by printing money, governments would frequently suspend the gold standard during times of war. Second, even without officially abandoning gold, some nations periodically redefined the value of their currencies in terms of gold. Instead of allowing for gold or foreign reserves to be consistently depleted, the countries would choose instead to devalue their currencies. It might seem, by this previous line of argument that countries had no real restrictions on their b
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