Editing Inflation (section)

===Classical economics===
By the nineteenth century, economists categorised three separate factors that cause a rise or fall in the price of goods: a change in the ''[[Value (economics)|value]]'' or production costs of the good, a change in the ''price of money'' which then was usually a fluctuation in the [[commodity]] price of the metallic content in the currency, and ''currency depreciation'' resulting from an increased supply of currency relative to the quantity of redeemable metal backing the currency. Following the proliferation of private [[banknote]] currency printed during the [[American Civil War]], the term "inflation" started to appear as a direct reference to the ''currency depreciation'' that occurred as the quantity of redeemable banknotes outstripped the quantity of metal available for their redemption. At that time, the term inflation referred to the [[devaluation]] of the currency, and not to a rise in the price of goods.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Michael F.|last=Bryan|url=https://www.clevelandfed.org/newsroom-and-events/publications/economic-commentary/economic-commentary-archives/1997-economic-commentaries/ec-19971015-on-the-origin-and-evolution-of-the-word-inflation.aspx|publisher=Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Economic Commentary|date=October 15, 1997|title=On the Origin and Evolution of the Word 'Inflation'|journal=Economic Commentary|issue=October 15, 1997|access-date=May 22, 2017|archive-date=October 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028064428/https://www.clevelandfed.org/newsroom-and-events/publications/economic-commentary/economic-commentary-archives/1997-economic-commentaries/ec-19971015-on-the-origin-and-evolution-of-the-word-inflation.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref> This relationship between the over-supply of banknotes and a resulting [[depreciation]] in their value was noted by earlier classical economists such as [[David Hume]] and [[David Ricardo]], who would go on to examine and debate what effect a currency devaluation has on the price of goods.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blaug |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4nd6alor2goC&dq=bullionist+inflation&pg=PA128 |title=Economic Theory in Retrospect |date=1997-03-27 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-57701-4 |pages=129 |language=en |quote=...this was the cause of inflation, or, to use the language of the day, 'the depreciation of banknotes.'}}</ref>