The Shasta courier., 1862-03-01
The Enormous Price of Gold.

Gold in small sums is selling at fifty per
cent. premium, and the price of gold is the
barometer of the smuggling trade. Any
KIND OF property can be purchased at the
South with the currency furnished BY the
banks and the Government. The finest es-
tates in Virginia and Alabama-the best
securities that can be found in any market
the substantials Of life, the luxuries of the
rich-the necessaries of the poor-the finerv
displayed in the streets and at the churches
horses cattle swine- bread, meat, every
thing in the South that has value, intrinsic
or conventional, except few articles made
the subject of extorsionate speculation can
be procured at reasonable prices. This great
fact is proof conclusive that money is at no
material depreciation. and that the high
price of gold is Fictitious and abnormal
There is but one single cause to which this
advance of gold in price can be attributed !;
and that is the extensive system of smuggling
which the dishonored and disreputable mer-
chants ofthe South are carrying on across the
Northern border. There is no especial de-
mand or necessity for gold for any purpose,
within the boundaries Of the Confederacy,
except for this pernicious purpose of SNUG
Cling; and the extent to which that disgrace
full and degrading trade i: carried on, is de-
noted very clearly by the premium which it
offers for gold.
Every broker in the cities of the South !;
every runner sent out into the towns, villages
and neighborhoods of the interior. to pick up
specie at 30, 40 or so per cent premium, is
in the pay of the smugglers, whose name,
like the cast out devils, is Legion. Any bu-
siness that pays premium of 50per cent. for
money, must have attained to enormous pro-
portions.
The present price of specie will be hereafter
quoted through all time as damning stigma
upon the character Of Southern merchants.
The smnggler is. a, worse enemy of the
South than the infamous Dutchman who en-
cages to shoot our people for SIS a MONTH
He exhausts the South to the utmost extent of
his ability of the specie she possesses, and
which she may need to purchase powder aad
ball to meet the hired Dutchman.
lie strengthens the enemy's hands by al
lowing a large profit to. the Northern mer-
chant who sells him the goods, and by pay
ing in specie the duty which the Northern
Government exacts on merchandise brought
into Northern ports. IF the goods be those of
Northern manufacture rather than Ct foreign
importation, he gives employment, 10 the
extent of his dealings, to the operatives Of
eiiC ANVAth WIZ NCiO SuppVitUu ~ OoAehSih
trade. Every instinct Of patriotism fori,ids
the Southern merchant from. .soiling his hands
and infaming his character by touching this
business.
But as all classes and employn,cnts have
their vile men, the mercantile class of the
South has its smugglers, the extent of whose
dealings, and the public mischief wrought by
whon, is proclaimed by the price of specie.
The only successful attack that can be made
ON this system of smuggling must be made
bv Congress. 1t can only be attacked by
assaults upon the blockade. One of the
most effective blows that can be lcveled at
which would be the repeal of the tariff and the
proclamation of free trade to all the world.
Such an act would rally to oar side the
commercial classes of all nations, and effect
more in our behalf, in tho long run, than the
offensive and defensive alliance of SO great a
power as England. 1t would put stop to
the secret escape of our specie northward. 1t
would set our cotton afloat upon the sea. 1t
would bring in foreign goods at one-fourth of
the smuggler's prices, and put every paper
dollar we have in circulation a par with
sr,ecie--Richmond Examiner 3lst Jan.