THE EXCHANGE PROBLEM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 4260, 4 November 1933, Page 3

THE EXCHANGE PROBLEM.

Mr Ramsay MacDonald, in a speech gave a homely illustration of the exchange problem: “You can build nothing except upon certain solid foundations,” ho said. “And one of the foundation stones that must be there is that international exchange has to be made possible by a stable currency. You cannot get it aAvay from it. Do you mean to tell me Kilmarnock can live upon itself, its oavii production, its own consumption, its own factories, supplying its oAvn markets, and nothing else. If Kilmarnock had a coinage of its own to-day, as I suppose you once had —a Kilmarnock half-penny or something like that —and, let ns say, Dumfries had a coinage of its own, but a Dumfries half-penny was something that Avas a penny one day and sixpence the next, and a farthing the next, how could vonr honest Kilmarnock half-penny be traded Avith such an unstable thing ns that Dumfries half-penny? Tt cannot be done. And some of the most recondite and most difficult and heart-breaking problems wo have to face on the high platforms of the world are just exactly examples of simple things like that.”