who was the first economist to come up with idea of money printing?

Question

After 1929 - 1933 Economic Depression in Europe,The gold standard Tyranny/Sytem was stopped.How did this came about and who were in position of doing so (may be an economist/state/International body)?
Gold Smith came up with the idea of keeping gold in strong rooms................!

Answer 1

Gold smiths spurred the use of currency.
In the past where gold was used as a means of exchange, gold smiths were made to store the gold of their customers in their vaults and issue their customers with special sheets of paper which titled them to the quantity of gold they had stored in the vault-at a cost to such customers. As such customers had to present the sheet any time they made an order for part of their gold and the quantity they requested was deducted from the quantity of gold the customer had in their vault. A time came when customers went to the goldsmith less as they issued those pieces of papers when they engaged in any transaction, and in turn, the one whom the paper was issued to would contact the goldsmith for the gold. After a while the sheet of paper could undertake any transaction as it contained a written order from the gold smith that titled the holder of the sheet to a stated amount and an assurance that the holder can make a request at their convenience. Holding the paper was more like holding your worth in the actual gold.

Answer 2

Libertyforall

That is a good answer about the origin of paper money. To expand on it, governments print money that is not backed by a precious metal such as gold. I believe that by law, people have to accept this paper money as payment for debts. Certainly the government will accept it as payment for taxes. But does a seller of some product or service have to accept it? In other words, could I open a store in the US and require payment to be in some other currency such as the Euro or even in gold?

Answer 3

It was a natural evolution of free banking. It is the same basic concept as using checks instead of carrying currency. For safety and convenience, the banks (originally the crown's treasury, later on goldsmiths and then banks) would print receipts as to the amount of gold you were storing with them for safekeeping. These receipts were transferrable, and as good as the gold themselves. If I gave one to a baker, the baker could then present it to the bank and redeem it for specie (gold, silver, whatever you happened to have deposited). This did not require governmental intervention, and as a matter of history, worked far better when the government did not.

Answer 4

The gold standard was in existence until 1971. Individual countries, like the US, stopped dealing with their own citizens in gold, but nation to nation transactions were settled in gold at a fixed rate.

Answer 5

Maybe ancient China?