It would have been far better for all had this been literally true.
The amount of gold in existence only controls the reserve backing, but the money supply is a function of interest rates, inflation, and economic activity. Even with the gold standard people could loan borrowed money and thus expand the money supply. It's true that over the centuries the price of gold would eventually return to a norm, and that's why some people can suggest that there was no inflation.
They lie. You can see on your link that what really happened was that inflation would soar way into the double digits, only to plunge without warning into double digit deflation. This presented a hellacious environment for business and untold unspeakable suffering for the people as a whole.
The monetary panics were precipated by the banks themselves. Fractional reserve banking is fraud, period. Earning interest on a loan of a non-existant assest is fraudulent and should be illegal. That is what caused the wild economic swings. Start by loaning more money than really exists and then laugh and foreclose when there isn't enough to pay back the loans. Of course there isn't, couldn't possibly be, it never existed. Fractional reserve banking is not part of a sound monetary system, whether gold backed or not. It works much better in a fiat system as bank runs are no longer a problem as money can be printed at will. However, the debt pyramid it creates does have its limits and we may be approaching that boundary.