CURRENCY INFLATION IN EASTERN EUROPE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO POLAND.

After all, the most striking fact brought out by the currency experience of all Eastern Europe is that paper money continues to circulate fairly generally despite any degree of depreciation it may suffer, and for that reason a country is not literally forced to quit printing it because of its uselessness. This extraordinary vitality of paper money belies many of the prophecies, but it is really only a natural thing. If notes still pass when they have dropped to the tenth of their original buying power, why not, after all, when they have reached the hundredth or the ten-thousandth part of their former value. Each given stage may be considered a new starting point. He to whom currency is tendered thinks not of its value a year or a month ago, but of its value today and its probable value next week or next month. The degree to which depreciation checks the use of paper money depends upon the speed with which it is being put forth, not on the lowness of the value already reached. Moreover the question whether paper money will ever be redeemed, at par or any other figure, has very little to do with its circulation. Broadly speaking people give thought to the political and financial position of the government issuing the currency not as affecting its ultimate redeemability but only as affecting the probable rate of future emissions.