The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-03-14 00:00:00

the Eibtrpoot 'taiibarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, 31JRCH 14, 1848

rom New York, which arrived
Lere on Saturday, brings us the following letter, in
Which there are suggestions that cannot fail to be
of use to the Parliamentary Committee on the
Currency. The letter is addressed to the Currency
Correspondent of the New York Express :

steamer

New York, 23d February, 1848

, —As an old 'Money' Reformer I have had infi-
nite pleasure in reading your masterly articles in the
Express, on the currency, and more especially from see-
ing that you have avoided the fatal error of allowing the
general principle of ' Money' to be confounded with the
subject of Banking, which is a question rather of circum-
stance or locality than of principle. Sometime ago I took
the liberty of sending you, through Mr,. Brooks, a rough
sketch of what 1 think should be done in England in
`Money.' Permit me now to remark that I trust my
views entirely agree with yours, and that you will persist
in not entering into the subject of whether the Banking
in the United States is right or wrong. If we carry our
principle this country will be infinitely more prosperous
under the worst system of Banking than it could possibly
be under the best if the humbug of Gold is perpetuated.
Gold I have always viewed as a cannibal, that creates
confidence only to destroy it. The prejudice however is
in favor of Gold (as at least the lesser evil) is so invete-
rate that I don't think ' MONEY REFORM' will ever be
carried, except we profess our willingness to retain gold
as the SECURITY OF THE CURRENCY, and confine our
objections to its being the MEASURE OF VALUE. On the
grounds that the change of the value of Gold robs the
labouring man, thus--the produce of a man's labour
brings in France—(ln a foreign country the price got is
riot dictated by the cost of the article.)-105 cents, of
which 100 goes to the industry of the United States, and
scents to the capitalist or man of money in U.S.—but
money becomes dearer through the export of Gold from
U.S.—and the man of money demands a proportion of
10 or 15 or 20 cents of the 105. Now this he is enabled
to do through your having adfipted the principle of Sir
Robert Peel's Bill of 1819, by which a bank note is made
exactly in relation to gold, as a dock warrant is to indigo
•—tLe scarcity of the article raises the value of the war-
rant, and the same enhancement occurs to the bank• note,
although to blind the people it is not allowed to express
itself directly, but only indirectly through capitalists'
money' fetching more interest and commanding more
commodities and labour when gold gets scarce through
exportation.

K SIR,-

1% hat `money' reformers want, as I understand, is
that the whole industry and property of this country be
removed beyond the changes on gold which are brought
about by foreign influence. We want to show the absui -
clity of every kind of industry and property being made

saleable and worth half nothing (s was lately the case

_ ngland), because of the imPortation of dOuble the
quantity of foreign labour we can pay for by our home in-
dustry. It is enough that our home industry be interfered
with by the competition of foreign labour, without having
the whole currency and also banking or confidence of the
country demolished 'ly the mode of paying for that foreign
Labour. If gold must be paid (as of course it must for our im-
portations), let us arrange that its exportation shall not di-
tarnish the home trade. Gold must be put in the same
category as all other commodities, and permitted to rise
and fall according to the laws of supply and demand. It
were preeminently absurd to attempt to retain a standard
of value in a country whose imports exceed its exports,
except such a one as would represent a gradual reduction,
as the country's industry and property would of course be
more and more impoverished, the more the country out-
lived its income. But even if there could be any doubt

it thus

as to the abo

oe self evident, that gold would
go to no greater premium than the extent of the exporta-
tion of the article, or, in other words, the extent of Fo-
reign Exchanges are against us ; and that when the fo-
reign exchanges are at par, notes a LEGAL TENDER, and
cold would be the same value. We cannot prevent gold
reci?.ing. It does so now—and at present its doing
•-) hat extent depreciates all other property and

pprecia

lahour—a state of things so utterly ridiculous that it
will not stand long in America. Quite in consistency

with these opinions, I AM AN ADVOCATE FOR SIR R.
PEEL'S RESTRICTIONS ON BANKING; and I see that
the recent Currency Committee in England will come
to nothing, because the QUESTION RAISED will be
`Sir R. Peel's restrictions on banking,' instead of
the simple question of PRINCIPLE, 'THE CURRENCY,'
or MONEY, to speak more correctly. I have long seen
what you seem to see clearly, that we may have a NOTE
that will not depreciate in reference to gold, any more
than any other •property. For instance, you might take
property in New York to the value of a hundred millions,
•

incl'i3sie bonds thereon to twenty millions. Those bonds
would surely be as good as, or better (more saleable),
than any other property in the city. But, as I have said,
the prejudice in favour of gold is so inveterate, that to
get a change commenced from wrong to right principles I
would consent to arrange the national money so as to leave
the people their GOLDEN BAUBLE till they got tired of the
expense of it. Without interfering with the present legal
tender, I would add thereto, say, TWENTY MILLIONS OF
TAPER, THE RECEIPTS OR EVIDENCES OF THE DEPOSIT

OF GOLD TO THAT VALUE, it► a new department of the
treasury at Washington (or of the proposed mint at New
York), allowing the Government to increase the issue of
notes to the extent there is an export of gold, or in other
words to the extent the 20,000,000 of gold rises in value in
the market, decreasing the circulation of PAPER THE EVI -
CE OF DEPOSIT to the extent the gold falls in value;
, the foreign exchanges got righted.
ed, would THE INDUSTRY OF THE
ITED STATES BE SET FREE FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE,

other wor(
I feel