The great inflation of the 1500s is echoing eerily today
P1:In the days of Henry Viii,England seemed to be falling apart.
场景描述:beggars cut your throat
the currency was being debased
morals were as degraded as the coinage
The burial/funeral was turned to boozing and belly-cheer
with an orgy involving
The feeling was shared across Europe,which by the 1590s was consumed by financial crisis,social unrest and war
P2:the root of the chaos was a wholly unexpected,and wolly unfamiliar
surge in inflation
300 years leading up to the 1500s🆚1500s
modern-day Japan 🆚Zimbabwe
England: in 1500 no higher than it had been in 1275
P3:all this changed afer 1500
Sustained(持续的)price inflation became unstoppable
1550s:Egland had doubles
1550s before long:Italian 5%
end of the century:France&Holland 4%
1530s:Russia pick up
almost any level of inflation made people poorer
P4:The inflationary surge also lasted a long time
Some countries suffered more than others
Scottish a lot worse than English
Dutch might have been the worst
P5&P6:the cause of the great inflation
1500s
M:excessive spending
JB: unexpected shocks to the global economic system were to blame
furiously disagreed over
today‘s historians
S
K
P7:author:after the Black Death➡️the population had grown fast,farmers moved to city➡️excess demand(for food)➡️monarchs goosed the economy by manipulated the currency
P8:monarchs manipulated
Henry VIII’s great debasement:involved taking one gold coin,melting it down,adding worthless metal ,and then recasting it as two gloden cions➡️plucked coins out of thin air➡️2% of GDP,spend the extra cash on wars and palaces➡️the resulting boost to nominal demand provoked merchants to raise their prices
Edward VI
Scotland double down
Netherlands,Belgium and Luxembourg,the silver coinage was debased 12 times
P9:debasement not the whole reasons
France
many countries
Spain
historian(author):what was happening across the Atlantic,(概括性同位语)the source(happening)of a huge supply shock Europe‘s to economy