Free Banking and the Structure of Production: A Contrast of Competing Banking Systems

Volume 3, Article 14 (2011)

Introduction

The purpose of this note is to apply an argument developed in Hülsmann (2009) to a claim used in advocacy of fractional reserve banking (FRB) under a system of free banking (that is, a system of banks lacking any formal, central control [as characterizes the state-monopolized central banking systems of the modern Western world]). Hülsmann considers the effects on the structure of production of changes in the demand for money, under two contrasting monetary systems: a commodity money system, and a fiat money system.