century, with their depreciated Bank of England
notes, and of the Franco-Prussian War.

The widespread inflation of the period of the First
World War and the years immediately following is
still a tragic memory for many millions of people in
Europe. In some belligerent countries, such as Ger-
many, Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Austria, the
inflation carried the cost of living to astronomical
heights. In others, the inflation, though very serious,
was not astronomical; for example, in France, Bel-
gium, and Italy, advances in the wholesale-price
level reached magnitudes of the order of 300 to 600
per cent. In some other belligerent countries infla-
tion, though real, was of a still lower order of mag-
nitude. In England between 1914 and 1920 the
wholesale-price level rose 195 per cent. During the
present war wholesale prices in England have al-
ready increased 63 per cent ( August, 1939, to June,
1942).

Our own country has fought four important wars
in addition to the present one, namely, the American
Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and the
First World War. In the American Revolution the
cost of living rose to spectacular heights with the
Continental paper currency; during the War of 1812
our wholesale prices rose 54 per cent in 2½ years;
during the Civil War from the firing on Fort Sum-
ter in April, 1861, to Lee's surrender 4 years later
our wholesale-price level rose 150 per cent; and from
the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 to the

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