What was the Gold Standard in William Jennings Bryan v. William McKinley?

- that gold was only standard to redeem paper money. What does this mean?

Thank You.

Once upon a time, each paper dollar represented a certain amount of gold owned by the U.S. government. That was called the gold standard. Theoretically, people could go to a bank with a paper dollar and the bank would trade it for a stated amount of gold.

http://economics.about.com/cs/money/a/gold_standard.htm

In the context of the William Jennings Bryan v. William McKinley presidential election, the Gold Standard refers to a monetary system where the value of a country's currency is directly linked to gold. Under the Gold Standard, the government would hold a fixed amount of gold and issue paper money that could be redeemed for a specific amount of gold. In the case of the United States, it meant that the U.S. dollar had a fixed value in terms of gold.

Now, regarding your specific question, you are correct in saying that "gold was only standard to redeem paper money." This means that under the Gold Standard, paper money, such as banknotes, would be backed by and convertible into a corresponding value of gold. For example, if you had a $10 banknote, you could theoretically exchange it for a fixed amount of actual gold, such as an equivalent amount of gold worth $10.

However, it's important to note that not all countries followed the same rules regarding the Gold Standard. The specifics and variations of the Gold Standard system differed across countries and time periods. In the case of the U.S., the country partially abandoned the Gold Standard during the Great Depression in the 1930s and completely ended the convertibility of the U.S. dollar into gold in 1971.

To understand the Gold Standard in the context of Bryan v. McKinley, you would need to delve into the historical and political circumstances surrounding the election and the debates on economic policies between William Jennings Bryan, who advocated for the unlimited coinage of silver, and William McKinley, who supported the Gold Standard.