In a concluding chapter I reconsider 'the quantity theory of money,' adducing reasons for holding that, when it passes beyond the status of a self-evident proposition, and asserts the determination of prices by gold supply, it is erroneous. Discussing the paradox of the divergence between the hire-price and the purchase-price of money, I urge as a solution the view that all forms of money in their circulation are hired instruments of the exchange of commodities, the passing holders of which pay a hire-price for the single service of exchange which they require, not being concerned with the actual value of the instrument employed.
Such are the principal conclusions to which the inquiry leads. Some of them seem tolerably certain, others tentative or dubious. I indicate them here in the preface in order that busy readers may make up their minds, before starting, whether it is worth while to follow a line of reasoning which introduces into the solution of the price problem so many considerations incapable of exact statistical measurement and, in some instances, highly speculative in their character and influence.
