Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1862-1865, 1863-05-01
rHouGHTs ON THE OURRENCY.
ADDkEssED 10 THOSE WHO CONTROL 1T.

cnred by appliances to the feet the stomach or the
cranum depends on the cause Of it. The case is the
same with moral disorders. Whether the man who was
killed owed his death the insanity or the wickedness
of the killer must first be escertaned before you can
decide whether your treatment shall be OF unac, or
madman 1t is the same with all. 1t is to the ascer-
tainment of the cause must first address ourselves
in dealing with every evil and our success proper
tonate TO the business of estimate OF the symptoms
and all antecedent influences.
The great disease of the country, now is plethora Of
e1rrsneg It has disturbed the equilibrium of values
disordered ideas-stimulated speculation-made real
fortunes for the knoWing-and started ignorant thou
sands in wild chase after delusve ones-erected an
enormous real, specie public debt, on wholly made
quate and unequal, paper oan OF unreal equivalents.
The crevasse still Bdens side, faster than does
ne new levee which We are erecting on the other
o stop breach, and control the still encroachmg
food.
Whence this great aud continually augmeuting, vol
ume OF currency? That is the question. 1t is usually
accounted for by referring the necessity for it to the
new demands created by the war, for new cOmmodi-
ties as cannon, &c. and to that for greatly increased
Quantities of such as were eded before and the
waste inseparabo from military operations This solu-
ton is no doubt true far goes and accounts Tor
and justihes, large increment of circulaton-but
when that this increased circulation Is five or
six fold its normal amount, then, allow what We may
for these new and enlarged demands for commodities
and for waste and pecuauon it must be still apparent
that they fall altogether short OF fully accounting
fer the vast increase Of currency that has al
ready taken place, and for the still charging stream
of paper emissions that is more and more inundating
the country Yet it is true (much deplore it, that
oar numbers to be fed have become necessarily and
,,lly fewer by the war-Our OUTLAWS for the produe
tou of needed articles as OF iron, cloth, &C. must
sp,rebend be now senSbly less also than at first; while
II Is probable that the actual quantities of these articles
nesad for our armies are also smaller. These great
sources Of demand then, taken in the aggregate,
,sinv should think not increasing if not positively
dimising-caunOt account adequately for the patent
fact of a constantly enlarging circulation-enarging
Ne have reason to fear, not positively merely but in
constantly increasing ratio. conclude that some more
efficient aud persistent cause OF this progressive eXpan
sion of the curreEcy than is furnished by these more
apparent ones of new demands for e1chaDgeable med
nm occasoned by new wants. and ofarger supplies Of old
ones-and Of greater magnitude also, has yet to
be developed or if heretofore taken into the estimate
20 be estimated of far greater Importance than has here
toore been ascrbed to it, and to be dealt with accord
ingy.
What is itS
Am wrong in believing that it is to be found in the
sudden and extensive substitution by war policy, OF
D,,a diats payments ia full in currency for what had
been bought previously on time, through the variou
forms Of credit and requiring the employment OF lar
less amount of money? Admitting the iull force OF all
the other causes above referred to- is it not yet true that
=
we're not less required by the persons who compose them
when - home, now in the heldg
Now. If We reject how the people composing our
armies Obtained heretofore, their needed supplies for
themselves and them how similar supplies have since
been obtained for them By the Government and # we
sbau find wide difference in the amounts Of currency
required to obsin them by these different modes,-h
we shall find that what they accomplished for them
selves by the employment Of small amounts, is the
Government pan only effected by raising much larger
amounts many fold larger so that what one dollar did
before some five or six are required to do now; if
find this disparity constantly widening and see, in the
ORIGINAL departure from the normal mode Of buying and
selling a wedge ever increasing the distance between
the REQUIRED amounts of currency TO accomplish still
the same end substantially, Of furnishing similar supplies
TO the same persons shall not be warranted in concud
inc that we have found the most influential and efficient
cause of all as well Of the FIRST enlargement OF the
currency as of the continued augmentation of it. and
of the still and constantly extending necessity OF
further and indefinite engagements Of it? aud that
this cause as bsfoso stated, is the war system of
immediate payments in full in all purchases re-
pacing the peace system Of payments in part (mere
" baances) at deferred periods in the class of
transactions? Is it not here we find the true
causaHs of similar results uniformly arrived at in all
countries and in all times where has been carried
on bv paper currency The still swelling Dimensions
and ever falling values, OF assignats mandats CONT
mental money, Confederate currency, United States
curreucy-ke snOw-balls, still inevitably growing and
in geometriOal ratio and becoming more unmanageabe
by the laws of their nature by every progressive revo
lutong Shall we not see how and why was how and
why it must ever be- that the ordinary oried resorts
still falling still repeated-for controlling this uni
veIsa result have failed utterly, and must fail forever?
How the most imperative orders OF Governments to the
Deople TO receive their paper issues at the par of
gold. have been always Vainy How the no less
absolute orders, equally false in principle with the
formeT that any given number Of paper dollars pre-
scrbed by the Government shall be held and taken in
buying and selling, as the par of gold dollars or any
par whatever flor therein is the latent and radical fall
lacy inheTng in all attempts to arbitrarily fix prices-
that the SNOWFALL still rolling on, shall yet never ex-
coed a prescribed diameter-mast, in Ike manner be
always impotent and bOth and all similar fulminatons of
authority as prepOserOus Cauue orders to the sea?
Il explains too think, now it is that the invitation
given by debtor ever issuing on stationary capital
10 fund Issues which progressively increasing with
cut visible limits and which must increase to an extent
that can only be measured by indefinite necessity
(toseyC wise and udicOus reverslon to the system
which they superseded aud always effective as far as it
is responded TOY has never yet succeeded and
can succeed, but to partial extent business ope
1ation-and how further, appeal to patriotism
which alone could give it full success must still fail of
adequate results not fond eliminating from
lack of that spirit, flor more of it, in my opinion,
neither CLOVIS has gowed in the bosoms ANY
people whatever, than in those of the people of the
Confederate States but simply, from a necessary lack
Of that knowledge and understanding of so difficult
subject which requisite to enable the mass to feel
the force of SUCH appeag
Now, while have no data-whle, perhaps, there ex-
its noue to admit of any accurate of the
extent to which the substitution of the war system of
immediate payments in full for the system of deferred
and partial payments previously existing must augment
the currency, yet the operation OF the change may
perhaps be sufficiently exhibited for the purposes of
the argument, by using copjectural amounts. Much
more correct are doubt attanable by theproper
department of the Government if these suggestions
should bSt thought worthy of examination Suppose,
them that khere have been an average number OF 400
900 men of all grades supplied by Government since
the beginning of the war, with food clothing and
ering Who till then, subsisted themselves and further
thatt required $500 each for that purpose that is an
aggregate of l2O millions for their support. How did