Ernest Hemingway: In praise of exchange rates

The Toronto Star has posted some selections this week from its archive of columns by Ernest Hemingway, who worked at the paper from 1920-1924 and served for a while as its European correspondent. The highlights are probably his crime reporting from prohibition-era Chicago and some early bullfighting coverage. But with all the European currency news, I was amused by his column advising Canadians on how to live frugally in Paris:

PARIS—Paris in the winter is rainy, cold, beautiful and cheap. It is also noisy, jostling, crowded and cheap. It is anything you want—and cheap.

The dollar, either Canadian or American, is the key to Paris. With the U.S. dollar worth twelve and a half francs and the Canadian dollar quoted at something over eleven francs, it is a very effective key.

At the present rate of exchange, a Canadian with an income of one thousand dollars a year can live comfortably and enjoyably in Paris. If exchange were normal the same Canadian would starve to death. Exchange is a wonderful thing.