The gold standard of Byzantium lasted over 1,000 years (325 to 1453). It was a product of Christian civilization. The modern gold standard was a was a product of 19th-century European civilization: part Enlightenment humanism, part Christian, and part Darwinism after 1860).
Christianity’s presuppositions
1. God as the source of all law
2. Ownership as stewardship (hierarchy)
3. Private ownership (8th commandment)
4. Self-government under God’s law
5. Inheritance by covenant-keepers (Prov. 13:22)
Darwinism’s presuppositions
1. Nature as autonomous and meaningless (until man arrives)
2. Man as the capstone of the cosmos (so far)
3. Law as evolving (situation ethics)
4. No final judgment (except heat death of the universe)
5. Inheritance by species’ competition
Two wings of Social Darwinism
Right wing (1860-1912)
1. Nature as unplanned
2. Individual men as the capstone of the cosmos
3. Law as unplanned and evolving
4. No final judgment (except heat death of the universe)
5. Survival of the fittest individuals
Left wing (1880-present)
1. Nature as unplanned until scientific men arrived
2. Collective mankind as the capstone of the cosmos
3. Law as evolving under scientific planning
4. No final judgment (except heat death of the universe)
5. Collective inheritance through science
The gold coin standard as an aspect of a comprehensive Christian worldview
1. Private ownership
2. Self-government under God’s law
3. Money as a free market development
4. Limited civil government (negative sanctions only)
5. Stable money over time
The gold coin standard as an aspect of right-wing Darwinism
1. Private ownership
2. Self-government under autonomous free market’s law
3. Money as a free market development
4. Limited civil government (negative sanctions only)
5. Stable money over time
The fiat money standard as an aspect of left-wing Darwinism
1. Private ownership guided by the state’s economic planners
2. Self-government under piecemeal social engineerin
g3. Money as a mark of state sovereignty (shared with central bank)
4. Extensive civil government (negative and positive sanctions)
5. Slowly depreciating money over time
Representative documents:
Christianity: Ten Commandments (Deut. 5) and case laws (Deuteronomy)
Right-wing Social Darwinism: Herbert Spencer, The Man vs. the State
Left-wing Social Darwinism: 1,000-page laws (unread) and 71,000 pages a year of interpretation and implementation in The Federal Register
Tool: Inflation Calculator, Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://data.bls.gov/cgi‑bin/cpicalc.pl
Gary North received his Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Riverside in 1972. Gary is the author of over 42 books including "The War on Mel Gibson: The Media versus The Passion," "Unconditional Surrender," "Conspiracy: A Biblical View," and "Crossed Fingers: How Liberals Captured the Presbyterian Church." Gary is one of the most insightful and thought-provoking historians and economists in modern times. 
