Most people think the Gold Standard died in 1971. In reality, it was mortally wounded in 1914.

WWI created a collision between rigid specie and the infinite demand of war. When the smoke cleared, the "money printing" genie was out of the bottle for good.

Before 1914, the "Classical Gold Standard" was a global straightjacket. If you didn't have the gold, you couldn't spend the cash.

But total war is expensive. To fund the front lines, empires had two choices: surrender or break the link to gold. They chose the latter.

Almost overnight, "specie" (hard money) was replaced by "fiat" (by decree).

Governments suspended convertibility to prevent citizens from hoarding gold. Suddenly, the value of your currency wasn't based on what was in the vault, but on the survival of the state.

By 1918, the world was drowning in paper debt. When nations tried to return to gold in the 1920s, the "specie" anchor was too heavy for their hollowed-out economies.

The result? The hyperinflation of Weimar Germany and the eventual collapse of the global trade system.

1971 wasn't a new direction—it was the final funeral for a system that had been on life support since the first shell was fired in 1914.

The move to fiat wasn't a policy choice; it was a war-time necessity that became a permanent global reality.

#historystr