Commodity money has existed for thousands of years. There is a much better explanation for the 1929 crash than "gold broke all of the sudden". In short:
The international gold standard did not collapse during the 1930’s because of its
inner contradictions — as schools inculcate the idea into all students. The truth
is that the victorious powers inadvertently caused the collapse of the gold
standard (with a 13-year lag) by disallowing its clearing system, the
international bill market, to reopen for business after the cessation of hostilities
in 1918. [1]
This makes sense if you study the functioning of the bill of exchange, which is a form of commercial credit that solves the problem of workers wanting weekly wages for producing a consumer good that takes months to sell: https://professorfekete.com/articles/AEFMonEcon101Lecture5.p...
The international gold standard did not collapse during the 1930’s because of its inner contradictions — as schools inculcate the idea into all students. The truth is that the victorious powers inadvertently caused the collapse of the gold standard (with a 13-year lag) by disallowing its clearing system, the international bill market, to reopen for business after the cessation of hostilities in 1918. [1]
[1] https://professorfekete.com/articles/AEFNewAustrianSchoolOfE...
This makes sense if you study the functioning of the bill of exchange, which is a form of commercial credit that solves the problem of workers wanting weekly wages for producing a consumer good that takes months to sell: https://professorfekete.com/articles/AEFMonEcon101Lecture5.p...