The gold standard is a monetary system which suggests pegging of economic unit of account with fixed mass of gold. For understanding the meaning of the gold standard a little digression in history is needed.
The United States switched to the gold standard in 1834 because of silver currency and bank notes crisis. The price for gold in the United States was set at $20.67 per ounce that year. The majority of the countries adhered to gold in the period called Classical Gold Standard from 1880 to 1914. This was the period of unprecedented economic growth and free trade in the ...