New-York daily tribune., 1859-01-27
1rEBER ON THE HISTORY of COM
MERGE.

PpE LIEBFR on Tuesday continued his consideration
Money. Tbe standard Of value among the Greeks
10 the OK They reckoned value by oxen. 50 he
I'D seen a history Of Nova Scotia in which the values
things were expressed in besver-skins. But when
ispoyed breeds Of oxen in Greece came TO have very
Jse,ept values from others, the standard Of value
-, s,ill retained and the more valuable was said
% be worth two or three oxeu and at los. this became
mental standard Of value, Ike the pound sterling,
which had no real existence. Money was that con-
nodty which almost all the members of the COM
runy were 60 desrous of possessing, that every one
vas willing TO take IT, though he might not want 1t for
ls personal consumption. We had temples first coin
,g money then cities then individuals, and at last,
Government took it into its own hand. Values existed
before money and money existed before Government.
Government, in conirg, merely expressed that
certain piece of money was OF a certain weight and
certain fneness In all countries where people had not
topfdence in this certificate Of Government, the
Government could not keep its coins in circulation.
governments had issued base coin, and forced the
,,Opls 10 take IT, When Frederick the Great was
ys,y pnched in tho Seven Years War, he employei
Jew, named Ephraim, to make base coin for
In, with which he paid his soldiere. He would not
lie it back he did not give value to these spurious
ans it was only an act Of robbery. The Chinese
aye more opium for the old Spanish dollar than they
rrd for the American dollar, because this last was
I'd 10 well known The old column dollars were more
Unable to them because they had more confidence IN
esr value After the battle of VittoTa, when the
Lgsh took the treasure Of the French, the soldiers
Imore silver than they could well carry. Gold i'm
rsiatey rose to twenty, thirty, fifty tines Its ususi
nue they would almost throw away their silver to
RI il, because il was 10 much more easily carried
sus brands on cotton bales 10 Liverpool msde them
20 much quicker than Others. Baltimore -four sold
better in Lima than any other; here tbs difference IN
value was mainly the difference in confidence. la
Irds, bags of gold sealed 10y some well-known SEAL
rsssed from hand to hand without countingthe zeal
,upersedmg the Government stamp 50 tar as those
actions were concerned. In that great period OF
tAe middle ages which he would call the period OF
naturalization, thst great period of the uniforms
,Ot Of the nations, the money of a nation was msde
inform only after its literature and law had become
a. 1t was always exceedingly difficult for the mind
10 learn 10 run in new channels. He remembered that
when, after twenty years absence, he returned to his
rsve land, if he was told the pnce of anything, ne
could not feel that il was cheap dear until he had
t,spssted il into dollars How difficult il mad beenfor
hs French to adopt their decimal system How mpos-
abe for u.s. with perfect decimal currency to stop
thinking shilngs and those, too, different in Boston, IN
New.York, and in Charleston. Fahrenheit and Reau-
uur were old and ratioDali but although all science
wa carried on in certigrade, STILL people in Germany
would freeze according TO Reaumur; and, IN America,
We were obliged TO perpire according to Fahrenheit
But uniformity was increasing and already uniform
coin for Europe and America had beome necessity,
sooner or later to be attained.