New-York daily tribune., 1861-12-27
pApER CURRENCY.

By the report OF the Director Of the Mint TO
the Secretary of the Treasury, the estimate oi
specie in this country is from two hundEed and
s.v.,,,.6vs 10 three hundred millions OF dol
,.r. or this amount twenty millions only Is
.upposed to be in the traitor States. How
much this may have been increased, however.
by adulteration aud recOnage, there s ana
can Le. in the absence Of nll data, no estimate.
l, il the suggestion of the Director Of the
Mint that to the crime OF treason the rebels
may have added tbat Of issuing forged coin,
or. which amounts 10 the same thIpg, &C.
nrec atsd coinage under thu United States
stamp. But Se n.u.t presnrpose a motive for
a crime of that sort. Tor the lii,le coin they
bod they can hpye no use at home, aud thirty
or forts days expenditure would absorb oil
they could add 10 tie iginal twenty millions
b, deprecated specie currency. Aud such
currency vould be If litle Use abroad, i,r we
doubt if even England has iaith enough IN
her Southern friends 10 take one oi Der
double eages without hrt sublect'ng IL 10
e,rcful assey. The celebrated folncier,
Tloyd keeps bank presideul-as other Gene
rails keep cookie sign bark bills, which be-
carries with hin in bulk, whenever he wanted
noney. This convenient substitute Ter NIL
tary chest il worthy Of that ingenious 6eu-
tleuap. who. when Secretary OF War OF the
uniea States, sold for Old iron such guEs as
he could not send off for the future nee OF
,,,,t,rs He can compel the farmers, the
.old;,,s and the contractors, in campaign IN
wc.ton yirgiuia, to take, for the service ta'J
r.oder, the worthless payer upon "hieh hi'
led president has put his sign manual iof 'heJ
have no alternative. Ii it hss no intrinsic
worth, and is good for nothing except to be
exchanged Immediately for something else
equally perishabic, it at least is good for
that, and 90 eau be passed from hand to
hard. For paper money has always that much
currency, that every man consents, when he
can get nothing else, to receive it from tho
buyer on the ons hand, aud pass it to the
seller on the other, as be gains by the transac-
acton articles necessary for immediate use,
while be hopes that when the inevitable end
and ruin come, a. they must, he will 20 30
shrewd or 10 fortunate ns TO escape without
having any of tho worthless stuff in his own
pocket. Vain dclusicn That which has taken
the place of money will be distributed o.
money would have been, and the loss must fall
on sll alike.
This psper-money mania has broken out in
its most yirulent form at tie South, and 10
rapidly running through oil its stages; so rapid
y that il would seem to fOreshadOw an early
termination to it and to the rebellion out Of
which it grew. The paper currency of the
rebels has already reached point as low as
30 per cent discount, and even at that rate is
only made to 80 by being declared legal
tender. The accelerating discount ia arrested,
for the moment by this measure; but higher
law than that of o Confederate Congress im.
mediately avenges itself by putting up the
prices of all tho necessares of life. We hear
from fugitives from the South Of the enormous
prices of everything; but we mistake if We
suppose that it il owing altogether to the
scarcity of the articles. That unquestlOnably
has something to do with it; but another, if
not more potent cause, is that an inhated
and worthless currency must inevitably raise
the price of everything exorbitantly.
The course run by the Continental Currency
during the Revolutionary War shows what is
likely to happen at tho South under like cir
cumstsnces. The issue Of paper money from
I776 till I7Sl was about $500, ,000, 600. and
was divided as follows:
Ir76. O6t 4G4 66 l7eo..."..s89 7g9 So %
lT7y....."... 4sl63p ~ iiIsi....'.''." H'S'Hs w
ITT8 ......,.... 6Ggb5 los - ------------
ITO .......... l43 .OJb9t al Total r5oseioSs' "