oney. Its increase in purchasing power (like that of the
gold dollar) during the first half of 1921 is, of course, due to the
fact that the supply of utilities had overtaken the demand.

At first sight it seems difficult to understand how any government,
however bad, can _deliberately_ issue flood upon flood of inconvertible
paper money, seeing that its printing operations are ruinous to both
public and private credit. To obtain the same amount of revenue, each
new issue, each new dose, has to be much larger than the preceding. In
the course of twelve months, for example, the exchange value of the
Polish mark was divided by ten, that is, at the end of the period, ten
times as much paper money had to be printed as at the beginning, to get
the same revenue. Yet the Polish Government continued upon its course
with the approval and support of the Polish Diet.

The following quotation is from the Warsaw correspondent of the
_London Economist_, who wrote on July 28, 1921:

The effects of the last collapse of the exchanges are beginning to
make themselves felt, and the Diet is already preparing fresh
ground for new currency inflation. By its last vote the limit on
the note circulation has been increased to 118 milliards, and on
the advances of the Polish National Bank to the Government to 150
milliards.

The depreciation of the Polish mark in June was followed by a rise
of prices, and this led immediately to a strike movement in almost
all industries. In the Lodz district 40,000 workmen have gone on
strike, demanding a wage increase of 120 per cent! The
manufacturers declare that they cannot raise wages by more than 20
per cent; that even under present conditions the Polish textile
industry is in a most difficult position on the foreign markets,
especially in Roumania, the Baltic States, etc. Posnania was
menaced by an agrarian strike, but a settlement has been reached.
The strike of the municipal workers in Warsaw was short-lived.
Everywhere, however, wages have been increased by more than 50 per
cent. This naturally will entail a new wave of rising prices, the
Government will be obliged to double the salaries of its officials,
and the printing press will work again under a higher pressure.
This is the vicious circle round which the country has been
travelling for three years.

_Ex uno disce omnes._ The monetary policy of the Polish G