The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-29 00:00:00

01M.....a1.._. _.

TO CORRES PO

,NDENTB

We think the r

"F. H. W." would be

tbt Etberpool gptanbarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, FEB. 29, 1848

HER Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer
magines, no doubt, that, by the device of a com-
mittee, he has shelved for the present session all
discussion in Parliament, and all legislation upon,
the important question of the currency. That
question, however, must and will force its way
-st the inquiring portion of the commercial
_ , for to no other source than to the operation
of our present currency laws—neither to the opera-
tion of tree trade policy, per se, to potato rots,
e railway investments, nor to excessive
ins of food—can the practical commercial
.! the disaster and havoc which have recently
pervaded every portion of the commercial world.
To no other source, except to a currency regulated
upon principles adverse to the safety of commercial
operations, can we trace these alternations of mo-
netary glut and scarcity, which at one time enhance
the price of all commodities, and encourage the
erection of vast fabrics of paper credit; and then,
suddenly, and without warning, prostrate those
fabrics, destroy all confidence between commercial
men, and, depreciating the value of all public secu-
rities, foreign produce and merchandise, and the
national industry, prohibit the
speculator from converting the
hold, except at prices absolutely

amon

classe'4

mnnortat

products (
merchant

stocks which th

ruinous

Amongst the various propositions broached for
the correction of the admitted evils of the system,
and the efforts of practical writers to trace its
operation in producing periodical monetary crises,
a pamphlet, just published byMr. William Watson,
entitled, "New System of Currency, by which
panic is rendered impossible," contains some posi-
tions, clearly and forcibly stated, which are calcu-
lated to arrest the attention even of those—and
there are but too many fiuch amongst the educated
commercial classes—who are in the habit of turning
away from the subject of the currency as from one.
which is too abstruse and full of mysterious diffi-
for practical men of business to grapple
Mr. Watson goes at once Co the root of the

culti es

xunj, _ .anation of the relative meaning of
the terms capital and money. The former he lays
down as the accumulated excess of the produce of
labour, skill, or enterprise, which its owner has to
exchange for the accumulated excess of his neigh-
bour, or of the foreigner. Money, on the other
hand, is only the artificial medium by which such
accumulation is exchanged ; and ought:at all times
io bear the same just relation to the value of one
day's labour, or a given quantity of accumulated
labour. Such equability of value, however, be
contends, is not the characteristic of our present
gold standard, inasmuch as the supply of such
money does not keep pace with the increasing
—,llAtion of the commodities which it has to
ex,ilains his position by the fol-

an exnl

repres

loiving striki
" To illustra

Ilusiration

Our r

monetary system, let A have
wheat, B on,ox, and C a piece of
them they have three sovereigns.
ilitate their interchange, the sov-
)nly legal representatives of each
n progressing in their accumula-
each other at their original value,
and oxen, have increased one-
Id has not been augmented. At
,--,-session of the gold, calls
Li and C to settle their account according to the
-^nt ; in consequence of which they are
ning the only holder of the gold,
-'ns possession of the entire

accumt

be the c

'd fold ; but the p
A, finding himse

I A. n

this non-augmentation of

C in a ruined condition to re-

r labour of accumulation to produce a simi-
ifich A assumes to sympathise,•and informs
hese are natural periodical panics.
3 how analagous our system is with this

ir'!

ducing the r
been our m
few years ;

mesent as well as the past panics which it has
isfortune to have experienced within the last
and how inevitably these panics are the result

of such a monetar

—a systeni by which the most
,eople in the world are ruined by their very

wealth

"We have decided that gold shall be our money, and
that no man shall legally buy or sell without first; ex-
changing his capital into the commodity called gold, and
although whilst in process of accumulation, we, by good
'faith, create a medium of exchange or currency,by credit
or bills of exchange, yet during the entire process we are
progressing towards the extreme between the capital our
• -7 7
I and the comparatively stationary
ce have decided shall be its repre-
efly in the hands of a limited num-
of the community, whose
tal to the original amount

tion of the gold u

ber of the unproduct

of gold which th

. "To show this more fully, we need only note the pro-
cess for a few years. Our annual accumulation of capital
at the lowest estimate exeeeds fifty millions, without
taking into account the accumulation of other countries,
while the increase of the commodity gold, which we decide
is to represent the capital, does not amount to more than
half' a million annually, including the progress of the
.whole world, so that in four years we have in England
alone increased our capital to the extent of two hundred
millions, without any increase of its representative gold
,beyond the two millions distributed over the whole world,
leaving one hundred and ninety-eight millions to be com-
mercially sustained by credit and bills of exchange which
have no legal existence as money ; and the first occurrence
that destroys commercial confidence brings the entire
capital accumulated during this period down to the posi-
tion that it was in at the commencement, the increase of
,srold being too) insignificant to be taken into considera-
tion. The result is a panic, which panic must continue
to occur periodically so long as capital outstrips its repre-
' nld, and the more industrious and the more
re a people are, the more frequent must be the
)f these calamities.

There are few who will venture to deny the per-
fect truth of this view of the operation of our
system, especially after the experience which we
have just had of the result of the extension of our
engagements to pay in gold for the foreign bread-
stuffs which we have been compelled to import—
`;on of the prices of every corn-
, widely-spread ruin which
lon our commercial and

the violent contract

modity of valu

But we must give the writer's
ht to be the basis of such a

views as to what of
ould 1

currency as

vent the recurrence of these

)dsof cri

tf, then, to make any commodity a standard of value
thus ruinously to commerce, may we not inqum
` imsible to find some other basis on which
.y system. Can we discover any
Lrs the same relation to the entire
our community, and which has a
11 that in amount and importance
he of our present standard ? This,
it accumulated national debt—an
),000,000, which we are all equally
"--+ on an equally adjusted

Is greatly beyond tE
I think, we have i:

amount
bound

) recog

system or taxation, WOUld nave precisely the same relation
.to the smallest as to the largest amount of accumulated
capital. We might, therefore, take this amount that has
none of the objectionable fluctuations to which a commo-
dity is subject, and being an amount that has the same
relation to all parties interested would form a perfectly
just standard, and must continue always to retain this
uniform relation that cannot be disturbed by anything
short of a revolution, in which case every description of
capital would be placed in the same position, and the plan
am about to propose would. tend to check, if not pre-

such catastrophe, as well as

confei th

benefits by giving a stead

iihii description Of

Property, the CY

ition. to ovc

speculation

evll proc
9r.ees, the

more by ihfluett

being produced infinitely
ie of money than by any other
ional to expect that legitimate
rsued under a monetary sys-
-day forced into circulation at
and to-morrow is not

ficates. and issue thei

also re-issue certifi

ane medium.
" If we take t

We have received several remonstrances against permission
being granted for the publication of Paddy Kelly's Budget.
•We hope the authorities will take immediate steps to prevent
thee ntinnnnnnnF ______•