Monetary reform
Sir: Reform of the monetary system is indeed an urgent necessity, as Mr Thomas (Letters 9 September) suggests; but it should be recalled that if money is ailing this is due not to some inherent weakness or evil of its own but to the over-great burden it is being asked to bear, and to talk of abolition or drastic currency reform will simply drive the power presently imprisoned in the bank-note into a realm where nothing can control it. Monetary chaos is but a symptom of the disease; a solution will be found only if that authority which, formerly vested in the Church, is now borne by money alone, is finally laid to rest.
What is this authority? It may be described as the power of some individuals to determine what others do with their lives. As Christopher Booker has recently shown us, pre-Renaissance man was largely content to leave such decisions to an authority outside himself (whether we think of it as God or simply as other men is not important); while since the Renaissance the rebellion against such authorities has become so vigorous that not even the thoroughly tangible and down-to-earth glory of gold (the representative of material wealth) can any longer command respect and subjugation. It is evident that stability will return to the economic and social order only if we voluntarily renounce all means of withholding from others the freedom to live as they choose; and here, as with all else, money holds the key. Simon Blaxland-de Lange Landfall, Brookthorpe, Gloucester
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