While working for his desiderated industrial expansion . he never
forgot the necessity of deflation as opportunity might serve. Towards the end of last year he opened his campaign by the familiar means of limiting credit and consolidating the floating debt. The lira, though it cannot even now look the dollar in the face, rapidly recovered. Confidence in Italian good sense and good faith attracted capital and that also helped. Perhaps the cure was too quick and painful. Thousands of workers were thrown out of employment, but now the patient is not only out of danger but convalescent. All foreign countries which have money to lend know now that the Italian currency is no longer at the disposal of political caprice, but depends upon a standard which resides, like any other fact of Nature, above the possi- bilities of human tampering.
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