I'm reading a book written by Bernard Shaw in 1920, Titled The intelligent woman's guide to socialism and capitalism
When writting about Capital he writes:
She thinks that money is always money. But she is quite wrong in this. It is true that gold coins will always be worth the metal they are made of; but in Europe at present gold coins are not to be had: there is nothing but paper money; and within the last few years we have seen English paper money fall in value until a shilling would buy no more than could be bought for sixpence before the war,whilst on the Continent a thousand pounds would not buy a postage stamp, and notes for fifty thousand pounds would hardly pay a tram fare. People who thought themselves and their children provided for for life were reduced to destitution all over Europe; and even in England women left comfortably-off by insurances made by their fathers found themselves barely able to get along by the hardest pinching. That was what came ofputting their trustinmoney. Whilst people were being cheated in this fashion out of their savings by Governments printing heaps of Treasury notes and Bank noteswithno goods attheir back, several rich men ofbusiness became enormously richer because, having obtained goods on credit, they were able to pay for them in money that had become worthless. Naturally these rich men of business used all their power and influence to make their Governments go from bad to worse with their printing of bogus notes, whilst other rich men of business who, instead of owing money were owed it, used their influence in the opposite direction; so that the Governments never knew where they were: one set of business men telling them to print more notes, and another set to print less, and none ofthem seeming to realize that they were playing with the food of the people. The bad advice always won, because the Governments themselves owed money, and were glad enough to pay it in cheap paper, following the example of Henry VIII, who cheated his creditors by giving shortweight in his silver coins.“
Other than the establishment of Central banks and in particular in America, the Federal reserve. Nothing much has changed since Shaws writing.
If anything the American Federal reserve and other Nations reserve Banks have institutionalized the rich controlling money.