Is inflation inevitable in all successful economies? Throughout history, has there ever been a society that maintained 0% inflation for a long term while still maintaining a good quality of life?
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I suggest you take a look at The Price Revolution or Spanish Price Revolution.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution
I personally learnt of this by reading The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. At first I could not understand why he belaboured it so but eventually understood; it has had a profound effect on both economics and commerce such that when Smith wrote -about a hundred years later – it was starting to become apparent.
Smith traced the cost of some items from Roman times to ‘modern’ e g. his time and showed that prices had been fairly stable pre inflation with supply and demand affecting them. For instance a war may make food transport difficult and the price rise. Post war the price returns to normal.
Post The Price Revolution we have normalised inflation. And now about 4 century later many cannot imagine an economy behaving as most did for most of history.
Also relevant is the presence or absence of an involatile wealth store/trade unit to serve as a means of exchange. It was colonisation and the discovery of American silver mines along with nee mining technology that disrupted the old Silver Standard (which is what people are usually thinking of when they discuss the Gold Standard)
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