Economic Collapse - Effects of War and Hyperinflation On Wealth and Commerce

Effects of War and Hyperinflation On Wealth and Commerce

Hyperinflation, wars and revolutions cause hording of essentials and a disruption of markets. In some past hyperinflations, workers were paid daily and immediately spent their earnings on essential goods, which they often used for barter. Store shelves were frequently empty.

More stable foreign currencies, silver and gold (usually coins) were held and exchanged in place of local currency. The minting country of precious metal coins tended to be relatively unimportant. Jewelry was also used as a medium of exchange. Alcoholic beverages were also used for barter.

Desperate individuals sold valuable possessions to buy essentials or traded them for gold and silver.

In the German hyperinflation stocks held much more of their value than paper currency. Bonds denominated in the inflating currency may lose most or all value.

Read more about this topic:  Economic Collapse

Famous quotes containing the words effects of, effects, war, wealth and/or commerce:

    One of the effects of a safe and civilised life is an immense oversensitiveness which makes all the primary emotions somewhat disgusting. Generosity is as painful as meanness, gratitude as hateful as ingratitude.
    George Orwell (1903–1950)

    The machines that are first invented to perform any particular movement are always the most complex, and succeeding artists generally discover that, with fewer wheels, with fewer principles of motion, than had originally been employed, the same effects may be more easily produced. The first systems, in the same manner, are always the most complex.
    Adam Smith (1723–1790)

    A war undertaken without sufficient monies has but a wisp of force. Coins are the very sinews of battles.
    François Rabelais (1494–1553)

    ... wealth and female softness equally tend to debase mankind!
    Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)

    I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in study without experience; in the attainment of sciences which can, for the most part, be but remotely useful to mankind. I have purchased knowledge at the expense of all the common comforts of life: I have missed the endearing elegance of female friendship, and the happy commerce of domestic tenderness.
    Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)