New-York daily tribune., 1859-02-12
PROF. LIEBER on HONEY.

Prof Iisber contiaued h, course on the History Of
Cornmerce on Tuesday. He said that money being
awsJs commodity, always retained that character.
II was bought and sold as anything else was. When
silver yas dear il was sOld al premium everybody
knew of instances of tbis. In the Il ne of Napoleon
often a million of men were sweeping over Europe
from ope place to another. For the subsistence OF
these zen immense amount Of money required,
and it caused great rise wherever it was wanted
Gold eso Auctuated very much in England, but not s
the came time a. the money was not needed by the
English at the same time. So Hamburg house in
concert with house in London cent, in fast sailing
vesses gold backward and forward according to the
demands Of the two centers. Tn line Of vessels might
ts likened to tube through which liquid money
flowed backward and forward to fnd its level. All
values were translated into money by the instinct of
the child and this led TO the error tina. money itself
was wealth, under which Bacon labored. So Cicero
called money the nerra 6e, the sinews Of war, aud
Montetqueu aaid that the wealth Of nation was pre-
csely the amount Of money in tue nation 10 the time
of the last crisis II was said that it must be all panic
because there muit be just as much money in the
country az before. The moment the stamp of the
Government rot believed in, money reverted to ts
simple cha acter o' commodity. In tie East where
governments had cheated the people and there not
confidence in them, all the gold was weighted. When
the gold cf Csliforis was discovered Belgium, in
order to secure steady currency demonei-ed gold,
mskirg silver only alega tender Regarding interest,
Christians, msed by their Misunderstanding Of some
passages in the Bible, had early denounced it. Even
Calvin wes deuded in regard TO Il, end it was not
really understood until after the French Revolution.
In spite Of this belief inteIet worked its way and
established itself; the Jews allowed TO take It,
Reality was stronger than belief So little was money
the whole wealth Of nation, tbst we had an IN
stance in Spain tf an enormous ihfG1 of gold, while
the country was growing poorer ard poorer al the
while They tried TO stop il from going over the from
tier but wa Of ue and had they been able,
they might have starved with their cellars full Of gold.
Some $500 O0O 900 800 600 COO flowed into Germany
during the years war in the shape ofsubsdes the
number Of the population was at the the time de-
creased, go that the amount Of money per head WAS
much greater than before. Here a larger amount
of money than before with smsller number Of people,
but yet the country was poorer. 1t was the great
work Of Frederic tie Grea. provide capital for the
farmers. Money was one OF the natural machines Of
human life it grew as necessity and always pre-
ceded government. The word was derived from the
Latin sonetq, which also the name Of the mother
of the graces. It's first syllable, mon, connected
with meHs mind, the fret operation of which was
counting. The Greek word h0msmoS, from nonos,
law, eignifed standard. The German geld meant
originally whatever was paid whether reward or pun
ishment. The Spanish diaero and the Itsan dsHario
were DO h derived from of the Latin COINS. Here
the vulgar language Of the Roman soldier had become
digniied by general adoption.