New-York daily tribune., 1843-09-02
THE TRIBUNE.
The Nature OF Money.

Thc nature OF honey
To Tie Editor Of the T'abune
In the Tribune of August 9th, in your remarks
upon the work entitled "Usury; The Evil and
the Remedy, you say, We do not quite agree
swith fundamental proposition that Money IS mea-
of value and that only UnqueS;iona6y The most
frequent use OF money value. But when
man $4,000 does ne merely borrow something TO
with Does he not rather IN effect borrow real
yalue though Of what precise kind depends upon his own
choice IF he wants buy farm with IL then he IN sub
stance the farm aud 80 fhis need be building
visions or whatever He does not borrow something
vhere;th 10 measure the due his aboTers &c but
the actual means paving them exactly though e boy
rowed ten thousand busbes Of what and agreed 10 pay
seven hundred bushels ayeaf for use until he co0d return
the gram"
have, Mr.. Editor, carefully read the essay
and have arrived at different conclusion from
Yourself / think il IS clearly shown that Money
;s only measure of value; and had the author
pursued the subject farther, he would probably
have furnished more evidence and other lllustra-
tions. If you will re-examinc the authors re-
marks upon this point, | believe you will be con-
yinced that there is no value III money as such
except what is given it by law. II is never in
itself, to any great extent the product Of previous
labor. saw in your paper OF the 23d instant, a
visit by Mr.. Weed to the Bank of England in
which he mentions that while in the Bank he had
put into his hands C2,000,000 sterling, say sS20,-
000, ,000-morc he thinks, than all the wealth Of
John Jacob Astor. Now, Sir, do you suppose
there had been that amount Of labor spent to make
this money? From the description given of roll
ing and numbering the sheets, the whole oi them
did not cost more labor when performed than
man would do III one week hoclng potatoes
Therefore this money Is not the product OF this
immense labor, but it viii measure the S20,000,-
900 worth Of labor when performed, or buy the
amount in farms or other things as the holder
may choose. Just SO yard-stick may measure
twenty million yards Of cloth, and though the
yard-stick would not be worth as much as the
cloth, still it is necessary to have 1t, and II is
more necessary to have money for the exchange
of products than to have the yard to test the
length.
Suppose man without food or clothing to be
cast on a desert island and ship to pass by laden
with gold, and he were to borrow Of the Captain
hundred guineas in gold, what relief would the
gold or any other kind of money, paper or specie
be to him? Should he borrow the same amount
in flour and other provisions, clothing, sc. which
this gold or money is made by law to represent,
his condition would be bettcrcd, but he would be
in no manner benefited by the money. Suppose
a dozen men were on this island vessel passing
laden with ground plaster of Paris they should
procure barrel of it from the Captain, who tells
them it is flour. Should they all believe it to be
-four, make it into bread and cat it, would this be-
lief make 1t sustain life? Not at all, it would not
inviporatc the system, answer the purpose for
which they had designed it.
But suppose a man to pass to you, Mr.. Editor,
counterfeit dollar, whether Of silver paper he
and you both believing it to be good, and the
same dollar should continue for a thousand years
70 pass from one to another each and all bcliev-
ing it to be good it would answer the purpose for
which it was designed as well as good dollar.
When it was discovered to be counterfeit, the
holder would lose what this measure of value
would represent in property and he would be de-
frauded of tho amount, because it was put in cir
cuation contrary to law and was fraud on the
public. If have not succeeded in removing your
doubts of money being measure only, must
sec still stronger objections than those already
made to convince me that it is any thing else
when used as currency Although | formerly
entertained different opinion yet Usury; the
Evil and the Remedy" has proved to me that it
is nothing but measure.
If it will not be asking too much, please insert
this communication in your valuable paper and
oblige A SUBSCRIBER.