Talk:Gold standard

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 14 January 2019 and 10 March 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Alisa Ayn Rosenbaum.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 22:31, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Dates of adoption of a gold standard

• 1704: The British West Indies 'de facto' following Queen Anne's proclamation.
• 1717: Kingdom of Great Britain 'de facto' following Isaac Newton's revision of the mint ratio, at 1 guinea to 129.438 grains (8.38 g) of 22 carat crown gold .
• 1818: Netherlands at 1 guilder to 0.60561 g gold.
• 1821: United Kingdom 'de jure' at one sovereign to 123.27447 grains of 22 carat crown gold.
• 1853: Canada in conjunction with the American Gold Eagle coin equal to ten US dollars and also the British gold sovereign equal to four dollars eighty-six and two thirds cents. The Canadian unit was made equal to the American unit in the year 1858.
• 1854: Portugal at 1000 réis to 1.62585 g gold.
• 1863: Free Hanseatic City of Bremen at 1 Bremen thaler to 1.19047 g gold; the only state within the German Confederacy to introduce the gold standard before the introduction of the 1873 mark.
• 1865: Newfoundland The only country in the British Empire to introduce its own gold coin apart from the British gold sovereign. The Newfoundland gold dollar was equal to the Spanish dollar unit that was being used in the British Eastern Caribbean Territories and in British Guiana.
• 1873: German Empire at 2790 Marks (ℳ) to 1 kg gold.
• 1873: United States 'de facto' at 20.67 dollars to 1 troy oz (31.1 g) gold. (See Coinage Act of 1873).
• 1873: Latin Monetary Union (Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, France) at 31 francs to 9.0 g gold
• 1875: Scandinavian monetary union: (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) at 2480 kroner to 1 kg gold.
• 1876: France internally.
• 1876: Spain at 31 pesetas to 9.0 g gold.
• 1878: Grand Duchy of Finland at 31 marks to 9.0 g gold.
• 1879: Austrian Empire (see Austrian florin and Austrian crown).
• 1881: Argentina at 1 peso to 1.4516 g gold.
• 1885: Egypt.
• 1897: Russia at 31 roubles to 24.0 g gold.
• 1897: Japan at 1 yen devalued to 0.75 g gold.
• 1898: India (see Indian rupee).
• 1900: United States de jure (see Gold Standard Act).
• 1903: The Philippines Gold Exchange/US dollar.
• 1906: The Straits Settlements Gold Exchange/pound sterling.
• 1908: Siam Gold Exchange/pound sterling.

References

English POV

Based on French franc, I gather that since 1800, France has been on the gold standard, using a bimetallic standard where silver was used for small change. Even timeline in the discussion fails to note that. Similarly, the Spanish real page indicates that Spain has been using a fixed gold equivalent for its currency since 1566, when the value of silver was also fixed. Can anyone improve the article, so that a reader could understand how did Newton's bimetallism innovated beyond the Spanish bimetallism, and why was the British pound more of a gold standard than the gold napoleons? As is, it seems the article was written with a British POV.

Semi-protected edit request on 13 March 2020

Wikipedia writes" In a 2012 survey of leading economists, they unanimously opined that a return to the gold standard would not benefit the average American.[3][4]"

This is subjective and does not add to the article. e.g. There are schools of thought and 'leading economists' that believe the gold standard would stabilize prices and help 'the average American".

Terms like "leading economists" "Opined" Average American" are all terms of subjective language not objective writing.

The poll was almost a decade ago and done subjectively by the NYT. This was not a peer-reviewed poll and a detailed study.

I am getting a Ph.D. in Monetary Economics and to start an article like this is not responsible for writing unless you are trying to convey a political message. Markbiernat (talk) 12:15, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. feminist (talk) 14:33, 15 March 2020 (UTC)

How about removing the word "leading"? --Renek78 (talk) 20:57, 29 April 2021 (UTC)

The sentence has already been changed. Station1 (talk) 03:01, 30 April 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 30 July 2021

Change 2021 to 1933 in "Upon taking office in March 2021, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt departed from the gold standard." Eghagstrom (talk) 17:59, 30 July 2021 (UTC)

 Already done Looks like that's taken care of. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 18:20, 30 July 2021 (UTC)

Advantages and Disadvantages

Within the advantages section there is this mention: Long-term price stability has been described as one of the virtues of the gold standard, but historical data shows that the magnitude of short run swings in prices were far higher under the gold standard.

This seems to be like a disadvantage. Plus it seems to already be mentioned as a disadvantage where it says: Although the gold standard brings long-run price stability, it is historically associated with high short-run price volatility.

I would recommend simply changing the phrase under advantages to say: "Long-term price stability has been described as one of the virtues of the gold standard" This phrase then naturally leads into the counter argument found within the disadvantage section.

As an overall recommendation for this article, the statements within the aforementioned sections seem highly subjective. To me, some of the disadvantages actually seemed like advantages lol. I would recommend making sure that each of these cited sources are clearly indicating an advantage or a disadvantage to the gold standard, and maybe even quoting the source or indicating whose opinion we are actually spouting.

In the lead it mentions: There is a consensus among economists that a return to the gold standard would not be beneficial, and most economic historians reject the idea that the gold standard "was effective in stabilizing prices and moderating business-cycle fluctuations during the nineteenth century.

Well, that's quite one sided, isn't it? No mention of the supporters? There are clearly other schools of thought that support the gold standard that are quite significant, as the article clearly brings out. Why no mention of them? As a kindly reminder see MOS:INTRO and WP:NPOV.