Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1857-10-22
Gold or Paoer-.Thc Alternative.

duliiS Oh tiiiS SUBJECT 10 WHICH the peo-
pie would do well to take heed We have
tried a paper currency for a long time, and
find that it does more harm than good to
the solid and permanent interests of the
country, let us try a gold and silver cur
rency, AMI see how it will answer. The
Commercial remarks: People who take
the paper money side of the currency qucs-
ton do not seem to be aware, or, if they
are, close their eyes to the fact that the
thing to be determined is merely a matter
of choice between the respective convent
ence and safety of metal and paper as a
circulating medium. The question is, shall
we have a metallic or a paper currency
To have both is impossible. Ii we decide
upon paper, the metal will disappear; if we
decide upon the metal. we shall be obliged
in order to give force to the decree, to re-
fuse to the paper currency makers the sane
ton of law to give character to their ennis
sions. The use Of paper always has, and,
unler the operation of an invariable law of
trade always will, drive the specie from cir
cnlation- Wanting employment at home,
the latter will seek 1T abroad. 1t is no ac-
cident. therefore. which is keeping up a
perpetual drain of specie from the United
States. "Having." says ADAM SMITH,
mo employment at home. it will in spite of
of all laws and prohibitions, be sent abroad,
and employed in purchasing consumable
goods, which may be of some use at home.
Its annual expectation will. in this man.
ner, continue for some time to add some
thing to the annual consumption of the
country, beyond the value Of its own annu-
al produce. What in the days of its pros
perity had been savcd from that annual
produce and employed in purchasing gold
and silver, will contribute, for some little
time to support its consumption in adversi-
ty." The work of DIR. Smith was written
during the American colonial state; yet, had
it been written in the year 1857, it could
not have described with greater accuracy
the present condition of the United States of
America, and tho Colonial relation"
which, in a commercial point of view, it
bears to the ''mother country"
"The Americans, it has been said, indeed,
have no gold or silver money; the interior
commerce of the country being carried on
by paper currency, and tie gold and silrer
achieh occasionally come among them being all
sent 10 Great Britain IN return for tie COM
modifies which they receive from as =
The present scarcity ofgold and silver mo-
ney in America is not the effect of the pow
crty of that country, or OF the inability of
the people there to purchase those metals
In country where the wages of labor is
so much higher. and the price OF provisions
so much lower than in England, the great
er part of the people must surely have the
whcrewithal to purchase greater quantity,
if it were necessary or convenient for them
to do so. The scarcity Of these metals must
be the effect ofchoice, and not Of necessity.
= The redundancy Of paper
money necessarily Ganishes gold and silrer
from tie domestic transactions offhe colonies,
for the same reason that it has necessarily
banishcd those metals from the greater part
of the domestic transactions in Scotland;
and in both countries it is not the poverty,
but the enterprising and projecting spirit
of the people. their desire ofemploying all
the stock which they can get as active and
productive stock, which has occasioncd this
redundancy Of paper money"
The author, in the same connection,
speaks Of the profits that accrued in those
times to the issues of the fictitious currency.
They were then the Colonial Governments;
but although that branch of the business
has since descended to corporations, the
practices of the present time do not seem
very unlike those in vogue among our pious
ancestors:
"Some of these governments, that Of
Pennsylvania particularly, derive reven-
ne from lending this paper money to their
subjects at so much per cent. Others, like
that of Massachusetts, Bay, advance upon
extraordinary emergencies. paper money
of this kind, and afterwards, when it suits
the convcnicncy Of the colony, redeem IL at
the deprecated yaiuc 10 ,chich Il gradually
fals." ef.f
We are inclined to believe that il the ma
kcd question were presented to the people
of the United States, shall our circulating
medium consist Of gold and silver coin or Of
the paper promises of banking corporations?
very few would be found to prefer the lat
tor; and yet. the matter is purely one OF
choice. There is no need of an issue of le-
Called paper; and its first effect, when
thrown upon the market, is to drive cor
responding quantity of real money out Of
circulation and ultimately out ofthe COM
try. We say corresponding" for It
may not always be Immediately an equal
amount. Under certain circumstances
bank notes have tho effect to produce .
temporary advance in the prices Of certain
ARTICLES, and thereby create the appearance
of \ demand for extensive additions to the
circulating medium. This occurs where
the banker enters the walks of trade or the
fields of speculation. The world, for the
lime being, seems to require more money
|! for its operations; business travels with .
speed hitherto unknown; the tide Of hu-