The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-07 00:00:00

MONEY AND CAPITAL.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sin,--So long as our journalists continue to confound
money with capital, and to use the words as synonymous
• terms, will the public be puzzled on the currency question
as much as they are about the " Taoli" of the Chinese.
In the " City Article" of the Times of the 3d inst. there
is this sentence :—" When the war actually commenced a
month back no one expected that a scarcity of capital in the
London market would be one of its immediate results."
What does the writer mean by the word " capital ?" Are
we to understand commodities or money ?
The scarcity alluded to cannot have reference to commo-
dities, as the quantity exported and imported during the
last three months was greater in value by £12,000,000 than
during the same month of last year. Neither does war
interfere with tho demand or supply of commodities to
neutrals.

If we understand the word " capital" to mean money,
and apply the scarcity to it, then all is plain and intelli-
gible, and the rise in the rate of discount can be accounted
for. why then not use the word " money," and call a
a spade a spade ?
All our debts are contracted in money and not in com-
modities. Our bills and cheques are made payable in
money, and consequently the apprehension of a scarcity of
money from the fear of a war or any other cause actually
creates a scarcity. This is the natural effect, as every one
who is under an engagement to provide money takes care to
secure what he can, and others hoard it for speculation,
anticipating a rise in its value. Hence the scarcity of money
but not of commodities.

This apprehension of a scarcity is aggravated by our
monetary laws fixing a limit to the supply of paper money
at all times, and diminishing its quantity at the very time
when our metallic money, gold, is leaving the country.
Now what is money ? is the first and main point to be
settled. All political economists admit it to be an instru-
ment of exchange. As both paper money and metaliic
money are, then, instruments of exchange, they must have
come character in common, some bond which unites them,
and is not this common character that of being a security
for a Teeified value in labour ? A sovereign carries with it,
like Anail, its :shell, its own intrinsic value—the labour
requisite to produce it, which serves as a security for the
aarae amount of labour.
A Bank of England note costs little or no labour, and
has no intrinsic value, but is neverthelessa a legal tender,.
money being a security for a specified amount of labour.
Both paper and metallic instruments of exchange are,
then, money, by virtue of their being securities for the
transfer of labour, and when it' is said that the value of
Money depends on the demand and supply of loanable
Capital—would it not be more correct and intelligible to say
that it depends on the demand and supply of loanable secu-
rity for capital, or, in other words, of money.—l am, Sir,
your obedient servant,

HAMER STANSFELD.

June 6, 1859.

THN ARMSTRONG GUN FACTORY AT NEW-
CASTLE-ON-TYNEsirWilliam G----The factory for the manufacture of
eorge Armstrong's rifled ordnance at the
Elswick Engine Works, Newcastle-on-Tyne, to the rapid
Grey rise of which Sir George alluded at the Armstrong
dinner recently held in that to
I s now nearly completed,
be
and will shortly brought into, full use. It consists of
five distinct buildings, or " shops,„ they are technically
termed, and of these, one, the largest,
state already finished,
and the others are in an advancedof completion.
The first shop was commenced in July,evoatsetd year, and
is 312 feet in length. It is entirely to black-
smith's work, and will be fitted with
enormous
furnaces and forge-hammers for welding the coils of
which the body of the gun is composed. The mag-
nitude of these is such that one of the anvil blocks recently
cast for this shop weighed no less than 21i tons. Of the
our smaller shops two of them are for the manufacture of
the machinery in connection with the mechanical part of
the gun, one is expressly for making the shot and shell, and
the fourth is a " fitting shop." In addition to these, se-
veral other buildings in connection with the ordnance works
are about to be commenced. The work of casting has
already begun, and a 70-pounder gun was turned out last
week, and when the whole of the shops now built are com-
pleted the factory will turn out guns of various sizes at the
rate of four ;per week. Great strictness is to be exercised
as regards the men employed at the works. Each is to
have assigned to him his own position, and beyond it he is
not to be allowed to advance.
EXCISE LICENSES TO THEATRES.—The Lords of
the Treasury have, in conformity with a memorial presented
to them, signed by,
the lessees of the London theatres, issued
directions to the Commissioners of Inland Revenue to grant
licenses for the sale of wines, spirits, &c., to the managers of
the London theatres who choose to apply for them. The
memorial was signed by the proprietors and lessees of the
ttaymarket, Adelphi, Olympic, Sadler's Wells, Surrey, Ast-
leys, Victoria, Standard, Pavilion, Maxylebone, and City of
London Theatres, and prayed that the right granted under
the act sth and 6th William IV., cap.. 69 (suspended for a
Period of nearly twenty-three years) might be restored. The
• reasons urged for this were that there were now a large
number of theatres and saloons holding the Lord Chamber-
lain's license for selling wines, under their tavern license,
while the managers of all the regular theatres were prohi-
bited from doing so. The reply to the memorial is signed
by Mr. G. A. Hamilton, one of the secretaries to the Tree-
titry, and dated the 30th of May, 1859. It states that the
.f 44.8 kCommissieners of her Majesty's Treasury having
:-‘°4 the memorial of the proprietors of metropolitan theatres
praying that they may he able to obtain retail licenses for
the sale ;.-4 spirits, &c., under consideration, had authorised
the Commissioners of Inland Revenue to issue licenses of
this nature upon proper application being made to them in
conformity with the regulations of their department.
The adviees regarding the Red ben cable are
dated the 27th of May. no line had then be laid to within
t 6,00 miles of Aden, and it Wits Tote odod to proceed direct to
at Place without waiting to land at Perim The cable,
hu97ever would be laid close to that island, so as to admit
of its being at any time connected with the shore.
Lord
Quid Henry Bentinek, M.F., has arrived at
Claridge 's Hotel, from Lincoln.