Whatever be the particular causes that have led to the high prices of food, economists agree that these causes will operate irrespective of any compensated dollar plan. This would simply serve, at its best, to keep general prices where they are, leaving each particular group of commodities subject to its own particular set of causes. If the compensated dollar plan were to be adopted, and if the prices of food should continue to mount, there would be disappointment for the general public, but nothing to surprise the economist. And conversely, it is entirely possible that the rise in the cost of living, that is, the special rise in the prices of foodstuffs, will reach its end irrespective of any monetary change whatever. The general rise in prices and money incomes ... is not unwelcome to the great majority of people. Its incidental consequences are perceived and debated chiefly by the economists; such as the effects on the creditor class and the slowness of so-called fixed incomes to rise correspondingly. The general public is concerned chiefly with the conspicuous rise in the prices of foodstuffs, which is ascribable to causes very different from those that bring the general rise, and can be reached only by remedies very different.... FOOTNOTES: [87] Adapted from Irving Fisher, _Objections to a Compensated Dollar Answered_, reprint from _The American Economic Review_, Vol. IV, No. 4, December, 1914. [88] F. W. Taussig, _The Plan for a Compensated Dollar_, _The Quarterly Journal of Economics_, Vol. 27, May, 1913, pp. 401-416. CHAPTER XIV MONETARY SYSTEMS OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES ENGLAND[89] [90]The monetary unit is the _pound_, or _sovereign_, equal to $4.8665, divided into 20 _shillings_ of 12 _pence_ each, each penny equal to 4 _farthings_. Originally the pound was a Troy pound of silver, .925 fine. Under the law of 1816 gold was made the standard and silver subsidiary. The coinage of gold is free, and to avoid delay the Bank of England is required to buy all gold and pay for the same at once at the [minimum] rate of L3 17_s._ 9_d._ per ounce, a [maximum] charge of 1-1/2_d._ being imposed for the accommodation. Silver is only coined on government account and the coinage ratio is 14.29 to one. They have the gold _sovereign_ (containing 113.001 grains pure gold), the unit of their currency, also _half-sovereigns_, _crowns_ (5_s._), _double florins_, (4_s._), _half-crowns_, _florins_, _shillings_, _six_ and _three pence_ pieces, _four pence_ (groat), _two pence_ and _penny_, all in silver, also _penny_, _half-penny_, and _farthing_ in bronze. A few English banks, operating under old charters, issue notes to a limited extent, which circulate as money. Otherwise the paper currency of England and Wales consists wholly of notes of the Bank of England....