St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1858-01-14
The Banking Question.


The leading journals throughout the
Union continue to discuss the banking
question but there is as yet no una
nimity of opinion regarding the prac-
teal remedy for the evils Of the pres
cnt system.
A pure specie currency is not now
and perhaps no commcr-
eial country will ever restrict itself to
A specie currency but the difficulty
is to devise a mixed specie and paper
which shall, at all times and
under all circumstances, be equally
safe. If there were gold and silver
enough in the country with which to
carry on all its industrial and CONNER
cial operations, there would be no Wis
dom in placing the gold and silver in
bank vaults and issuing promissory
notes as mediums of exchange. But
the amount of specie in the country is
limited, and cannot be augmented at
pleasure, neither can we prevent iluc-
tuations in the amount while we carry
on trade with foreign countries.
! Hence trade and commerce feel the
necessity of an auxiliary currency,
which aids the general movements OF
trade and industry at home, and leaves
the specie to be used in settling
the trade balances between distant
places and countries having CONNER
cial relations.
The precious metals, apart from
their use as mediums of exchange or
representatives of value, have an III
trinsic value, and enter into the list of
valuable products which are exported
and imported in the general business
of commerce. There is, consequently,
frequent fluctuations in the CONNER
cial value and in the production of the
precious metals. More than this, if
there were not an ounce of gold or
silver in the world, trade could still
be carried on, as the ingenuity of man
would devise modes by which OK
changes of products of labor and OF
earth could be made. Still the precious
metals are the most stable mediums OF
exchange, but they possess no mira
culous virtue which makes them a sure
protection against financial revulsions
or commercial dishonesty.
If there were not a bank nor bank
note on the whole American Continent,
there would be periods of financial
Distress" and of stagnation i'll all the
branches of trade and industry. There
would be grand dcfalcations, cmbcz'
Elements and "suspcnsions.' To car
nv on trade or manufactures to any
extent, there would be necessity for
credits, and when the "hard cash
failed to be forthcoming to redeem
those credits, there would be the usu
, al declaration Of insolvency. A hal
l eagle will no more appease hungo
= than will a five dollar bill, and if tn
! bill can be made to command, at a
) times, and in all parts of the countr.
as much bread as the gold piece, tn
bill is, practically, just as good a I'M
dunn of exchange as the half eagl'
What we want, therefore, is not G!
actly paper currency convertible a
all times into gold or silver, but a p'
per currency, auxiliary to our specI
currency, so well secured that it wi
always, according to its dcnomina
tons, command equally with gold an
silver pieces, of corresponding demon
nations of value, the service, the foot
the clothing or the luxurics which W
need or desire. To supplying thi
desideratum should our banking sy'
TEN be confined; and if this wcr
done, we would not be exposed to tn
curse of an inflated, or WORTHLESS
paper currency.