The Arkansas banner., 1843-11-04
r.o,o the Democratic Rs'ie,c, Of 1889. .pCIIMENT OPPOSING A NATIONAL ai BANK

A notion. 10 NAlNi .A" PiNi 5 oNe
 % Soems to prevail among most of our s .ant;le classes upon the first principles oi * ;t;esl @ economy, has given vogue amongst Il E',Nnamely, that there is not enough oi
 and silver in the world to serve the func- % @b;ch % these metals have heretofore been
 nStomed to perform, that of the common 4 % "nro of value and medium of exchange ';rbt with as much reason be objected to
 .sa,d-stick that there are not enough ol
 'n. for the purposes of measurment, or that
 nes not stretch with the increase of the N sa "nt of commodities to which 1t is to be esled Itis plain that half of the existing T E nttv would answer very nearly, If not os well. the nominal scale of prices of \ Commodities simply graduating itself ac- <, ,,lnglv. and other metals being more ex- 'ss m mss;veIy used for the smaller subdivisions of fs or which might then become inconveni- 12v minute in size. And at any rate so
 Is as such enormous quantities of these
 fals continue locked up uselessly in the
 n of massive articles of luxury and dis i. from which the urgency of demand *sed by deficiency of supply would soon H them forth into activity in the shape of anev. it is indeed amazing that any person Sending to decent average of information common sense, can suffer himself to be so a aposterously deluded.
 [It is a great mistake to suppose that the Imber and amount of actual transfers of knev as the medium of exchange ill the ktand immeasurable business transactions of industrious commercial community, bears considerable proportion to the number F amount of those transactions. At the fod of greatest expansion of our paper 4rency prior to the late convulsion-when
 amount of transactions was so enormous, d the activity of business so morbidly ra- &-its amount was not more than about Hdred and forty millions of dollars, and $ actual circulation of specie was very &ed. by reason of the almost universal
 of paper medium, notwithstanding the Entity existing in the country. The great T of all such transactions are in truth con- Ned on credit between man and man. The Se process takes place between individuals, { sections of country, as between distant fons, in the management of their com Scial transactions. They consist mainly hhe interchange of commodities, which II always in the long run nearly equal h other in aggregate value-conducted |Sugh the various forms of personal credit,
 ll as running ledger accounts, sound pro-
 kory notes and bills of exchange repre- Ming real transactions and 1t is only the , ¶tvely small balances that are period- N settled by the actual payment of mo- E These credits are of a perfectly sound, 4thy, and natural character. They are hded upon real transactions, and depend personal confidence, being entered into Hntarily, and with intelligent circumspec-. They all refer themselves indeed to Eexisting standard of value-which in the bmerce of nations is gold and silver, and hing else, and which i'll the commerce of kylduals, and of different sections of lntry, though 1t may be made to fuctuate pe or less from time to time by the use of Ftic artificial substitutes, must always, after sooner or lates, he brought down again to \ standard, by the regulating check of for commerce. But they refer themselves to the same manner in which in the mea- Fment of the millions of yards of cloth lies of all kinds-and, in short, of all the hifold computations of the dimensions of tth and breadth which are constantly talk |place-the yard-stick or foot-rule is re- fd to, though comparatively rarely applied
 he actual process of measurement
 lut 1t may still be supposed by some, that amount of the precious metals which any
 country can possess, as its proportion of whole common stock of the world, re- 3ey to it's population, industry and wealth, Ed still be insufficient for the purposes of Hal circulation which may be required by Secular circumstances, of extent of terri sparseness of population, and eXtraordi-
 business activity and enterprise of it's
 bitants; and that the advantage of con-
 ence of form possessed by paper for dis | transmission and rapid circulation in
 amounts, over tho metals, whose move
 Is must be clogged by their weight and
 1, by the risk of transportation, and by fmallness of their subdivisions, is calcu-
 to adapt 1t better than specie to such ptry and such a population, as a "cur- |y" or circulating medium.o Frequently Fe bear this notion advanced, the sophism Is evasion of the true point of controversy Idlculously shallow. For apart from the pous considerations, that in the first place, fll purposes of personal expenditure, such Favelling, &c., gold and bills of exchange lat least as convenient as bank notes-and,
 ne second place, that in all commercial Pmunlties where the metallic medium alone Psed, the larger amounts frequently re- Fedl circulate constantly, in commercial |saetlons, without the actual process of ptlng, Tn kegs or sacks of which the seals bitten unbroken for years-apart, we say, ! these considerations, it is plain that no- Pg IS easier than to combine the advan- es of solidity of substance and convenience sofm, to any extent that may prove desi- Fe, by converting specie into the form of |ef, through certificates of actual specie 1oslte, which would indeed afford paper Fency, as before suggested, entirely exempt
 p all the evils inseparable from every paper t'ium founded on any basis less broad and Fo than the actual dollar for dollar And quantity Of money actually required for 41 D