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"The Federal Reserve System therefore began operations with no effectiye legislative criterion for determining the total stock of money. The discretionary judgment of a group of men was inevitably substituted for the quasi-automatic discipline of the gold Standard."

-- Monetary History of the United Stats pg 193

I really don't understand how gold/silver provide any protection beyond paper currency. What's stopping any government from just deciding that instead of two ingots, you owe them three now? They own the scales, they can put their thumb on whatever side they want as hard as they want. If you want to argue with that, you ultimately have a gun pointed at you. It's the same thing with a slightly different set of steps.

Lol back then the US had the gold standard. Currency was backed 1:1 by precious metals.