Interwar reflections on the balance of payments: Taussig and the influence of the Ricardian bullionist tradition

FLORENCIA SEMBER

Ricardo on Money and Finance: a bicentenary reappraisal

Routledge

Lugar: Abingdon; Año: 2013; p. 208 - 228

The aim of this work is to show how important, after the Great War, the influence of the debate held at the times of the Bullion Report still was. We focus in the debate raised by Taussig´s 1917 article "International Trade Under Depreciated Paper. A Contribution to Theory". We show that even if there had been a shift of emphasis as compared to the times of the Bullion Debate, the discussion being more focused in the mechanisms of adjustment of the balance of payments then in the causes of gold flows, the influence of the old debate was still pervasive. We show as well that some new elements appear which will be important in the theory of the international trade of the twentieth century, like the purchasing power parity theory, sectional prices and income changes.