This article analyses the workings of the gold standard. It points out the inconsistencies of the traditional view, based on Hume's price-specie flow mechanism, which ignores Adam Smith's "law of reflux" and the properties of a commodity money regime. Avoiding the aprioristic and excessively stylized character of the majority of analyses, the study discusses the adjustment mechanisms based on real economic history. This makes the issue easier to understand, as well as more concrete and less disconnected from effective reality, which, as recognized by many authors, is very difficult to explain from an orthodox perspective.
Gold standard; Law of reflux; Hume's price-specie flow mechanism; Balance of payment adjustment; Commodity money