Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1859-02-19
EOid-W

Professor LTEBER Is delivering a course OF
lectures in the City of New York on the
History of Commerce" In a recent lee
ture he discoursed on money. which, he said
4s1being always a commodity, always retained
rssE that character"
In the time of NAPOLEON. often million OF
- men were sweeping over Europe from one
place TO another. For the subsistence of these
= men an immense amount of money was re-
quired, and ii caused great rise whenever it
was wanted. Gold also fuctuated very much
in England but not at the same time as the
money was not needed by the English at the
same time that it wanted by Napoleon.
So a Hamburg house in concert with house
in London, sent, in fast sailing vessels, gold
rror backward and forward, according TO the de-
49, mands of the two centers This line of yes
sells might be likened to a tube through which
20 liquid money flowed backward and forward
-. 10 fad its level
There is nothing new in all this, but still
80 the learned Professor was guilty Of no super
erogation in saying it. If it were certain
"a that he could beat these well-known and
often-repeated truths into the heads Of the
hard-money poIiticpns Of this State, no amount
of pecunary remuneration for such a service
would be too great for the people of the State
o. to bestow upon him. These politicians
Democrats of course -seem to be possessed
with the idea, that if paper money be
excluded from circulation by prohibitory le-
s- gislature, the gold in the State, and which
might be brought into it in the course OF
trade, would for the most part stay, and furn-
iSh at all times, a sufficient amount of currency
for the wants and exigencies Of the country
however sudden and unexpected such exigen
cies might be. This is most erroneous idea
and & most mischievous one, the people of
Tennessee will find to their great cost, should
they unhappily follow the counses of the
reckless, and ignorant as reckless politicians
who persuadng them to put down the
whole banking system within the State, and
= trust alone to an exclusively metallic cur
rency.
- The Professor, in the course Of his lecture,
combatted and exposed the error of Monies
quieu, that "the teealh OF nation precise
ly the amount OF money in a nation" So
little money the whole ,ceaih Of nation,
tho We had an instance in Spain of an
enormous influx of gold, while the country
was growing poorer and poorer all the time.
They tried to stop it from going over the
frontier, hut it was of no
Dnring the seven years war some S5OO,-
100000 or $500 800 900 of gold flowed into
Germany in the shape Of subsidies; the
number of the population was at the same
time decreased, that the amount of money
per head much greater than before.
-. Here larger amount of money than
before with a smaller number of people, but
yet the country was poorer.
Ii we supposed that our hard-money politi-
clans wanted to understand the true charac-
ter and certain effects Of the measure they
are urging upon the people, we should sug-
gest to them the propriety of rejecting upon
the aforementioned and undeniable facts.
BIT as satisfied that they don't care
90 understand the subject, forbear the
suggestion.