PAPERS ON FINANCE AND COMMERCE.
PAPERS ON FINANCE AND COMMERCE.
PAPERS ON FINANCE AND COMMERCE.
PAPERS ON FINANCE AND COMMERCE.
We are perfectly aware of the very many objections which arise in the minds of the people to such a currency as has been proposed, butthe thoughtless one of “What! an irredeemable paper money! Oh, no! that will never do; that means utter repudiation,” which is the most commonly made, scarcely merits attention. Will those, who so earnestly place themselves in opposition to a convertible currency, stop and consider for just one moment. What is the ten-dollar gold piece you have just received for a ten-dollar note good for? Will it feed or clothe you? or will itdirectlyminister to any of your needs or to those of any of your family? Directly, it will do none of these things for you;but you can have it really redeemed by something that willfeed, clothe and minister to all your requirements. You will thus perceive that you have been and still are laboring under a foolish delusion regarding this precious metal, for you have all the time been getting your paper money redeemed by your gold money, which you finally are obliged to redeem by that which is really valuable—that which it takes to maintain life and make it desirable.
Now, you know very well that the gold there is in the world cannot redeem or represent the values of the world. Were it a thousand times as valuable as it really is—that is to say, could the consent of the world be obtained to making the amount of gold which now represents one dollar to represent a thousand dollars—there would be a possibility of the gold in existence representing the value of the world; but as no such result as this is anticipated, it is in vain for you to cling to any such mythological and speculative theory.
Again: What terrible outrage would your conscience sustain if you would give a little calmer consideration to a proposition which you have always heretofore rejected without thought. With your gold you have been able to obtain that which you required to sustain and make life agreeable. These necessities, then, are the really valuable things of the world. What objection, then, can you make that can have the sanction, even of your own reason, to at once admitting that these are the only real values the world contains, and consequently—because legitimately—that whatever is money must be a representative of these valuables: and also and further, that anything bearing the name of money, which does not justly and fully represent the sum total of these, is not money in the true sense of that term.
Again: Money may be considered the negative pole of the battery of value. To all things there are two extremes and a mean, the evidence of perfection being that there is always an equilibrium sustained between the extremes through the medium of the mean. Products are positive existences which go forth to administer to the demands ofhuman nature, and expend themselves in the negative returning force, money; which, in being brought back to the point which it represents, becomes a positive power itself, having the capacity to obtain labor which restores what has been expended, and thus the circuit is complete and nothing is lost; the same products exist and the same representation of them also exists. If, perchance the return of the products is not always immediately made, the power to return them is never lost, though that may be in a thousand years.
Thus it will be seen by all, if they will but give the necessary attention, that the proposed currency which shall be representative of the products of labor is not only the only natural money there can be, but that it can never appreciate nor depreciate, because every twelve months it is worth just one twenty-fifth part of itself—for it is believed that this per cent. of increase is the true balance between accumulation and production; if, on trial, this balance should be found too small, or too much in favor of production, it would be increased; and if found too large, or too much in favor of accumulation it could be reduced. This must be a subject of test, and when tested, legislation can increase or decrease the standard of value by making the “measure” larger or smaller, just the same as it does other “measures.”
We believe that the inauguration of such a money system would be the beginning of the “leveling down and the leveling up” of the capitalist and the laborer, and that such a thing as practical equality will be impossible under any less radical and comprehensive change from present systems. It is to be hoped that that large proportion of the whole people which is represented by the classes that desire to be “levelled up,” will give this most serious matter their most serious attention. We are aware that it is a subject but little understood, and that the prejudice of the people is in favor of the money god, gold. But, as in religion, so will it be in money; when reason and common sense are admitted to the debate, mythologic spectres and theoretic fancies will begin to assume their true shapes, and the realities to arise from the depths in which they have been confined.
New York, Nov. 25, 1870.
New York, Nov. 25, 1870.
New York, Nov. 25, 1870.
New York, Nov. 25, 1870.