You only really have that problem when you want to start with a currency out of nothing. In that context, it might be interesting to study Hut Taxes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hut_tax
It is a fascinating problem though, because the price level is really just an arbitrary number when you look at it from a global perspective: If all price tags were removed from everything, an alien observer would have no way of telling it.
This makes a lot of people very uncomfortable, and I suspect that is what underlies a lot of the ultimately romantic desire to tie currency to something "real".
It is a fascinating problem though, because the price level is really just an arbitrary number when you look at it from a global perspective: If all price tags were removed from everything, an alien observer would have no way of telling it.
This makes a lot of people very uncomfortable, and I suspect that is what underlies a lot of the ultimately romantic desire to tie currency to something "real".