One of the oldest, widely accepted functions of government is control over the supply of money. The dramatic effects of changes in the quantity of money on the level of prices and the volume of economic activity were recognized and thoroughly analyzed in the 18th century, and monetary economics has ever since constituted one of the principal branches of economics. In the 19th century a complex and somewhat crudely formulated tradition grew up known as the “quantity theory of money”, which held that any change in the supply of money can only be absorbed by variations in the general level of prices (the purchasing power of money). In consequence, prices will tend to change proportionately with the quantity of money in circulation. As the growth of fiat paper money gave governments increasingly effective Replica Tag Heuer control over the stock of circulating media, the quantity theory of money supplied an apparently simple rationale for the management of the economy: all that was needed to prevent inflation or deflation was to vary the quantity of money in circulation inversely with the level of prices.
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