New-York daily tribune., 1843-10-28
CHATTER II.
1fthe Nature of Interest and Usurs

CHAPTER II.
Ofths Nature Of Interest and Usury.
Congress has reserved to itselfthe right to coin
money and fix its value; these it has done, or in
tended to do, by determining the quantity fgold
or silver that shall be in any coin, without fixing
the rate of interest to be paid for the use of it.
] think have already shown that this value is
arbitrary and legal Now if can make it appear
that the value consists in the use and not in the
thing itself, it will be evident that Congress has
only determined what weight gold or silver shall
be in certain coins, and left their value entirely
unsettled The use or the income is the only
thing that gives value to any thing; house, if
IT could never be either occupied used or rented
would be certainly worthless unless the material
of which it was composed could be employed for
some useful purpose. A fine horse is valued for
his use break all his legs and he is good for no.
thing, for his use is utterly destroyed. The dia.
mond is valuable for its use as an ornament were
it deprived of its brilliancy its use, and therefore
its value in that respect would no longer remain:
the same will hold true Of every description of
ornament. To any one who will investigate the
subject it cannot fail to be clear that in the use
alone consists the value of all material things.
The use or interest Of money constitutes the le-
gal value of the money itself, and the legal value
of the dollar increases Just in proportion to the
increase of the interest. Money loaned on inter
est begcts or increases its like; if loaned at six
per cent. per annum at the end of the year it has
increased or added six dollars of the same article
as the hundred and if the interest rise to twelve
per cent. it doubles the dollar as much as it dou
bles the income.
A Railroad Stock that brings in an income of
six per cent. per annum is certainly worth only
one half as much as one that brings in twelve pc,
cent. If the income ofthc one that brings in six
per cent. could be let for six per cent. only after
it was received, and the one that brings in twelve
per cent. could be let at twelve, the Stock bring
ing the latter price would be worth vastly more
than double the one that brings but six per cent
per annum. But suppose Of these Stocks
should bring in one year six per cent, the next
eighteen, the next five, the next twenty -four, the
next seven, the next four, and the next seventeen,
per cent. and each year the income uncertain, no
one would pretend to say there was fixed value
to this Stock, or that it would be a just measure
of value, although they now say of the dollar that
it is dollar all the world over and its value is
always the same. They might as Justly assert of
this Railroad Stock, that Stock is Stock all the
world over, and always of the same value. But,
if the income on this Stock were precisely the
same, not only every year but every day in each
year, and would continue so without auctuation,
other things might vary, but the Stock would al
ways be of uniform value. And especially if it
were made the standard by which every other
species of property were valued it being the ioun-
dation of all value and always producing the same
income-Stock producing Stock as money at IN
tcrest produces money, the thing produced being
precisely like the thing that produced it. the Stock
could not possibly vary in value. Suppose man
to have one hundred shares of this Stock, which
was yearly producing six dollars on each share
amounting to $600) the interest or dividend
{$30C) being paid every six months, should the
Stock and Road cease to exist, but the dividend
be regularly paid, the on.existence of the Road
and Stock would IN no manner affect its value
But let the dividend or interest cease to be paid
and for every cease, and the Road continue, the
Stock would not be worth one cent. Should a
Farm cease to produce, it would be worthless for
Agriculture SO, should the interest on money for
ever cease, doubt whether any Nation with all
the laws i: might make could ever maintain it as
a currency. Therefore, money loaned should
bear an interest fixed at such rates as never to be
oppressive even to the Poor. We might better
vary the length of the yard than the interest Of
money-better allow all the other measures to
vary than this, because it measures the value OF
every species of property, all Government expenses
all official salaries. and every thing that is sold
by the piece, bulk or quantity. How important
is it then that it should be just! a man might
as well be allowed to change his neighbor's land
mark as to increase the interest on his debtor he
would as much augment the debt, to the injury oi
his debtor, as he would enlarge his Farm to the
loss of his neighbor. If the one is Just, the other
must be so too.
Congress has coined money, but has not deter
mined its value, because it has left Its use or IN
serest unsettled. 1t might as well have SAID tina,
the yard should contain thirty cubic inches and
allow it to be made to slide out to any length from
two to fifteen feet, and then permit few people
to nlonopolize them-when buying, to slide out
this stick to any length, and when selling, to re-
duce it to two three feet and call the length OF
the stick yard, however long or short it might
be. 1t would no more vary the quantity of cloth
when the yard was increased from three to fifteen
feet than The dollar is changed when the interest
is altered from six per cent. per annum to thirty
per cent, or two and half month, which latter