The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-07-20

and facilities Cash CIedittheir early origin
poses Of traffic The institution OF coinage md the obligation
Of contracts OF those Cash and Credit,
important Inventions in giving e and vigor 10 the opera
tons of ratcwhie the invention of banking has brought to
ormity and unnsrsaly The eons,.ionaiy Of Bank or
Fiscal Agency with banking only placed beyond
doubt but the obligation establish such measure
Of national preservation and progressive Improvement, de-
monstrafed
There is subject which mixes up so much with
the daily business of society in some shape or other,
and at the time is involved in great ntricacy
| and perplexity, as the depising and regulating the
currency Of a country. As medium for the aiena-
ton transfer of property, and the fulhment OF the
obligation of contracts by aoding both the cash and
the facilities Of credit necessary in the operations of
social traffic the nature of currency entitled to the
profound research Of the wisest statesmen in
der that the details of its and the regulations
thereof may attain the greatest practicable uniformity
and consistency through all the sections of
banded empire, and in all the yocations of its enter
prising people.
The principles of CASH and CREDIT by whatever
terms expressed, have had their germ in the earliest
stages of human existence connected with notions Of
property. The institution, of each Of those principles
was commensurate with, nay originated in, and are
inseparahe FROM the physical necessities Of being
The import Of these terms is somewhat variant,
however, they purpor to refer to the primitive and
absolute practice of the crude Traffic existing in isola
ted rudimeDts before the formation Of society, or to
the conventional and correative of ci,her
cordlng 10 the development oil Their matureu systems
under the Institution OF social compacts.
The CASH principle, in ts original operation to meet
individual necessities, consisted in primitive bdrter or
the exchange of commod ~ for another commodity
of supposed equal value. This the mode Of cash
traffic used in the ateJ operations of the early stages
Of huma. Intercourse when first emerging from state
| Of baIbarism.s
The CREDIT principle in its terminating state of
simplicity, consisted in ,he alienation to another OF a
commodity To supply his necessities, without receiving
present equivalent but, prospectrey, some informal
recognition of good faith in lieu thereof to replace II
| by an equivalent at future time. This was the
crude but simple mode of credit resorted TO in the early
advances towards civilization, typical ofIhe cond,ng
innocence and reciprocal good faith of the early ages
! On the other humid
| CASH, in its conventional sense, under the legal
iechnicaities Of civilized cnmmunt es, denotes pre-
sent payment for commodity legal tender OF an
equiv aent representative conventional value, with
on, recourse, remaining obligation an he payer.
And CREDIT in its conventional sense under the
like legal echnicaities implies an obligation to pay an
equivalent in legal tender, al future time, Tor any
commodity value Observation-Disclosures the obligation
be expressed by writing. verbal assumps or in other
lega form. SO that
! Whether the terms CASH and CREDIT be purely con-
venonal or legal tech ncaties, the principles upon
which the alienation of one commodity for another,
presently consummated rTospectively TO be consum-
mated in good faith, have existed al all times as the
germs Of the improved systems Of social rafhc. But
| when these germs Of human commerce expanded into
the conventional systems of cash and credit for the
greater convenience of civilized life the former print
tive and crude forms of cash and credit went mainly
into disuse-whe The adoption Of representative of
value called currency, the means OF cash payment,
and the adoption oil legal obligations pay at iuturc
time at afforded the facilities Of establishing the
ordinate twin systems OF cash and credit IN lieu OF
their primitive ISOLATED and crude germs OF traffic.
1t il also equally clear, that the institution of coin
age to supply cash. and the obligation of contracts to
ensure the good faith Of credit essential to- and
necessarily coevaI WITH the inception and gradual de-
yeopcmrnt Of these systems order to give new life
and vgor the operations of traffic, commercial en-
terprise and business intercourse of society
And furthermore, II may be conceded on all hands
i lst That the due regulation of the cash AM credit
sys,ens as practlsed between the members of com
munity and between the community and its citizens,
or between them respectively aud foreign States or IN
dviduals of the highest attributes OF sovereign,
Ity-to the successful adjustment Of which Il Is essen
,al have well regulated currency OF representative
! o value.
| ID That this nominal value representative OF
property, constituting the currency or medium OF tra
tic selected in different stages OF civilization, ana
finally settled down upon the prec Gus metals on &C
count OF their fneness and dufabl ty OF material,
should bear stable and uniform proportion TO the
property and the commercial enterprise of the commu-
nty in which II used observing nearly as possible
correspond ny advances with those attendant on the
progress OF lis basis of value and counteracunR as
much practicable those fluctuations in either, SO
pregnant with mischief TO the common veal.
81. That, in consequence of the increase Of the
property the commercial enterprise and general traffic
Of the civilized world, giving rise calls for pro-