The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1857-02-05
MONEY.

III t
l The Philadelphia Nor,h Americas has an ex-
e llent article on the value Of money, from
which we make the following extracts:
Since tie disc overy of the gold fields of Cal
Ifornia and Australia. a vast addition has been
made to the precious metals in po-sessionof the
world. A knowledge of this fact naturally
suggests the question, What has become of all,
The gold? Some years ago. when the arrival
of gold from our Pacific coast first began to
attrac; attention. and the supply was announced
to be inexhanstible, and when sim lar reports
came from Australia, many persons under the
apprehension that gold vas about to become
mere drsg in the market, and that the relative
value of monev to all other articles, and every
species of property, was abcnt to be greatly
and Suddenly changed, hastened to get rid Of
those securities which consisted in promises
to pay fixed sum of mon-y, such as bonds
loans and mortgages, and to invest in real
estate, or in stock that would of course appre-
cia,e in value as money deprecated. That is
TO say, perceiving the amount of gold in the
world about 10 be increased fifty OF a hundred
increase would take place in the value of other
articles as measured by money--half as much
again, OF double as much. being their price in
money. But these expectations have not been
realized. The production OF gold has indeed,
fully come up to all that was promised or
hoped, but the relative augmentation of other
! values las not taken place. and so far from
money having become drug, the demand for
It is quite as active as ever 1t was. it commands
as high rate of interest.
! The explanation of this circumstances which
is not little puzzling to some, is very simple.
Parad xical as the assertion may seem to many,
the increased p oduciion of the pre- lou, metals,
with certain limits. actu lily has tendency to
increase the lie nand for money. In this res
pect gold and silver only follow the general
law of other productions
The history of modern times--ot our own
day amply bears out the doctrine now laid
down. that production stimulates consumption.
Take articles 50 familiar to us as coal and iron.
We might almost say Of he form r that 1t had
only been introduced to the knowledge of the
world within the last twenty FIVE years, so
great has been the increased production with
in that time; but has there beer any proportion
ate decline in value? Has consumption failed
to sustain PRODUCTION, or production to stimu-
late consumption? So with many other Of the
most prominent articles OF commerce, almost
unknown to the Europe Of the middle ages, as
tea, tobacco, coffe. which have created their
own market. have been objects of prof able
taxation to governments. and sourc of wealth
torations employed in raising and transporting
them. .
Now, Of all natures gifts, or of all the prod
uc.s of mans ingenuity. none are so mobile as
gol'; none pass so readily from hand TO hand;
none SO soon find emplo, ment or create a mar
ket. Flour and cloth may find no purchaser
before mould and mo;h come 10 destroy them;
bui at all times gold may be exchanged for ev.
cry species of property, and hence is never idle
except indeed in those cases where it is hoard
ed OF used in he arts, which cases do not large
ly affect the. result, since the quantity thus
withdrawnis mparatively small.
Like otner commo diiies, then, but with grea
ct facility than they. the product Of California
and Australia, has raised a demand for gold
which has thus far readily absorbed all those
regions have been made to yield. This gold
has taken the shape which the g,eat bulk Of
precious metals ever must take--cnrrency.-
1t is employed for the usual pul pose of money
and facilitating exchanges Of value amosg
men. Some of il lies in the banks as The basis
Of credit and circulation; some of it is /. he
drawers Of the shopkeepsr; some Of it in the
pockets Of Individuals II is with one man to-
day, with another ton morrow, with third the
next day. It goes IN at one counter IF ba nix
and is p ID out at another. II goes out OIL a
voyage from the country; some day it m,ist
come back again. or at least should TITS ever
revolving in a wide circle, and the term circu-
lating medium applied to money indicates
clearly and well its use. $40
That the increased quantity It gold used as a
currency has not greatly augmented values, i.
due to the fact that the industry and commerce
OF the world have developed themselves since
the discovery o. the new treasure almos. as
rapidly as the gold has been brought into "a. Q,
and have absorbed it in their operations. Had
the state Of the world since that period remain
ed as fixed as the glaciers Of the polar regions
no doubt the value Of gold would have depreci-
ated. But il must be remembered that the cnr-
rency has a great deal more to do now than it
had then; and, in order to sustain the prices
that were then obtained. aud at the same time
carry on far arger transactions, tits necessary
that it should be greatly increased.
Within quarter Of century the creation Of
industry and the exchanges Of barter have per-
haps doubled tits impossible perfectly tore
alize the vast strides the world has taken in
material progress in that time. We only APP
proximate to some conception Of it when we
come to reflect on certain particulars. Let US
take one born, so to speak, Of the asst twenty
five years. Already in the United States not
much less than $SO0 0O0,OOO are invested In
railroads and enterprises of this nature contin-
ue to be planned on grander scale than ever
before, aud are pushed forward with anew en-
ergy. Within the same period The railroad
system Of Great Britain has been developed,
and that of Europe. Nor is there any prospect
Of falling of in those Improvement. Along
er line Of railroad is projected to be laid down
40. Al. L.