“The disaster of the Dark Ages was caused by decreasing money and falling prices… Without money, civilisation could not have had a beginning, and with a diminishing supply, it must languish and unless relieved, finally perish. At the Christian era the metallic money of the Roman Empire amounted to $1,800 million. By the end of the fifteenth century it had shrunk to less than $200 million. History records no other such disastrous transition as that from the Roman Empire to the Dark Ages…” — United States Silver Commission.