go any further. Professor Cassel admits on page 226 of the work already cited that "the common purchasing strike, both on the part of business enterprise and consumers, may perhaps be regarded as the immediate cause of the fall in prices. But this purchasing strike," he adds, "has been a direct and natural consequence of the restrictive policy adopted by the bank administration." The Professor might have explained how a restrictive policy which failed to restrict could have produced a fall in prices.
In 1919, however, conditions were quite abnormal, with prices soaring so fast and furiously that producers and merchants might well think that hardly any rate for money could make it advisable to take in sail. In normal times a few turns of the Bank Rate screw might certainly be counted on sooner or later to produce the desired effect. But when the wind is on the other cheek, when depression prevails and it is desired by lower money rates to induce enterprise to tuck up its sleeves and get to work, no such success can be expected with any confidence. If people think that any business that they do is likely to involve them in loss, they would evidently be born fools to do it, even if the money needed was lent them for nothing.
This difficulty is admitted even by Mr.
