Arkansas true Democrat., 1857-10-20
- Cost of the Bank Dollar.

 population and material resources, as these United States In the fiscal report of last year the whole sum of money (coin) in the country was estimated by the superintendent of the mint at S2OO,OOO,OOO The secretary of the treasury had supposed it to be more, but deiers to the opinion of the superintendent. It IS small matter for country of such great extent, population and resources--not half the amount shipped from San Francisco in eight wears past and probably not more than one-hith the sum retained in France at this time
 There Is an unaccouutable obscurity of men, tai vision in relation to this subject here. It ought to occur to business men to enquire how it is that France has obtained possession of such an immense mass of treasure. She has robbed nobody to obtain it--on the contrary she has herself been plundered of vast sums ln Slt6stdtes to foreign powers. Notwithstanding the great destruction of property in war, and waste ot time and labor in irivoliiy, winch seems 10 be a marked element of character in her people, she has accumulated five times the amount of treasure possessed by this country, and vastly more than England. Ths treasure IS wealth, in addition to what she would have possessed if she had pursued the policy of this country and manufactured her currency of debt. It ahates nothing of her substantial possessions to make room for itselt after the manner ot pa pnr currency, which cannot be established Win out expelug coin for lts permanent anouht- It is money, closing every Hansacuoh ln eX change with realty loi reality, leaving no heart ache.
 It renders debt unnecessary, not mere V for it's special amount, but for the huge sum which the absence oG real morey, d consequent repe tition of debt create. Outside of the srea: cities of the empire beyond the operations of the Bank of France and the speculations of the "Credit Mobllier,' there Is almost no debt among the people. A failure in business Is deemed crime, and rarely occurs. While here, debt rides the whole community like nightmare, a constant source of anxiety, ulti- mately sinking almost every trader in bank ruptcy and despair.
 From estimates, based upon reliable state ments of British economists aud French bank CTS, there appears to be the enormous sum of $ $1,OOOOOOOOO of coin in France; while the bank money in notes and credits furnished by the BaHk of France-the only bank in the em- pire-does not exceed Sl3O,OOO,OOO in addition thereto. This bank money Is the machinery of speculation there, as that sort of money all ways s and must be everyw here, and Is unac- ceptable to the great body of the people of the country
 
 fabric of currency is that the dollar, to possess value, must be the product of labor. Whether dug from the mines, obtained by the ex- changes of commerce, it is legitimate wealth. Undoubtedly the additional dollar could be dispensed with, as it is mere medium of ex change which if enough existed before to circu- late the products of the country, will only add to price; more property can be circulated by reason of it. Nevertheless 1t Is substantial wealth, upon it's own measure, and cannot be obtained without the return of an equivalent, If unaloyed with paper in the currency.
 France has obtained her vast accumulation of the coin by the very simple and agreeable operation of selling her commodities for cash, on the paper valuations of other countries, Of which N have furnished more, directly or in- directly, from the product of our own labor, than any other country on the globe.
 The bank dollar, or dollar of promise, creates DO value; 1t can be made in moment and al ded to the real dollars of the currency, without any labor and without adding a fraction of pro- pcrty or wealth to the community; but it will infallibly add itself to the price of commodities.
 Suppose we add fictitious dollars of this sort to purely metallic currency, making the vO- lume of currency 70 per cent. greater than be- tore, p S-lO grains ot gold will be dollar still, and we may l. our ignorance Imagine that the "promlse to pay'' Is as good as the gold dollar, because 1t Is convertible into gold on demand; but it's ignorance alone that arrives at any such conclusion The yard of silk, from France or China, that we could have bought before for Sl in golI, or Sl iu a bu,hr of corn, will now have diIereut pric-: Sl l0 will buy no more than S1 bought before. w. fancy We have improved the market for corn 10 cents per bIlsh- f tha far silk. [ getting ricn we thi, k, hut It Is ;n ls,ncy only. rae yard of silk is wnrtn t' tne tore, 5arr a ousoe oi corn or d 2u,l t.i,.t bIt ne can nov Let Sl 1O iu gold, anj h. W.ii ,aGe nat to the market where b, eAu uuy with it one-te.th mere corn taau Ge ci. .atatH he-e for nis yard of siE. We htva 'mpy-0s,y mP'y-,old II lU ci -oi4 iaT ,ae Utite oi Sl, aud Kept the corn, which, nA- we eXentHged 1t for the silk Noull nave opened tn. market to the farmer for further supply, auj also furnished more height to our uaNl4Atipu.
 Every one, who Is not mentally blind. can see this extremely simple operation, upon large scale, in the movements of banking and com merce in New York at this time. As the banks of that city mauuf ,cture dollars out of debt, the same number of real dollars take to the water for Europe, mostly, whence they travel to India, eitner Ia gold silver, the silver go- ing to China, where its utility Is greater than anywhere else, as it forms the exclusive curreu- cy of that country; and our gold supplies the vacuum created by the withdrawal of silver from the currencieS of Europe.
 Thus it is that our gold, the very life blood of commerce, is being forced abroad, in amounts sufficient to furnish cargoes of products for all our ships now lying idle at the wharves, while shipbulding is at an end, navi ig ition stagnant, the west unable to sell their products, and una ble t. pay their debtS and our merchants, par ticularly those engaged Ill navigation, are being ruined.
 lam surprised at nothing so much as the ex- treme innocence of men who favor the present currency system. Every one of them knows, and admits, that the curtaiment of bank loans will put stop to the export of specie, while scarcely one of them seems to think that the expansion of bank loans causes the export They believe, very properly, that taking the fire from under kettle will stop the water from boiling over, but deny that putting the tire un- der 1t has anyting to do with the boiling. This Is their views of the case, as 1 understand it, Almost uniformly they assert that the specie goes abroad only to pay our debts caused by the excessive imports, whereas 1t Is perfectly obvious that the degradation of the currency, by the expansion of bank loans, compels the export of gold, and the imports furnish the re- turns. The degradation of gold is the cause, the imports the consequence.
 From this 1t results that the country loses 0ut,TgM the amount of every fictitious dollar, or "promise to pay" that becomes permanently fixed ln the currency. Oi this have no doubt whatever. The dollar of debt degrades the dol lar of money and forces it away and then takes its place. There is no way in which gold can be taken from this country but by the degrada- ton of its value, for we nave ample means to supply other countries with what they need more than gnld and what they must buy else where with the gold they take from us The balance of trade,' that chimera of politicians Is not asaifst us. Europe takes our gold be- cause It IS cheaper than our corn, wheat beef pork, ashes, etc , and the chespness of the gold Is clearly the result of multiplying dollars; as the cheapness of potatoes, ,oten dtey are cheap results from multiplying potatoes.
 It is Stran Ie that this simple law of value is