The Portland daily press., 1863-03-10
The Price Of Gold.

Inc fIlce Oh GOlOs
The Richmond Examiner justly charges the
Confederate Congress with dilatory action in
providing ways and means for their Misgov-
ernment-action so sluggish and purposeless,
as to argue incapacity for dealing with the a.
nancial problem before them. There is real
depreciation of the Confederate currency; the
problem Is hopeless. In marked contrast to
this faint-hearted delay, stands the prompt but
well considered action of the late Congress of
the United States. Its beneficial results are
already apparent in the collapse of the specu-
lation in gold. Gold, which has been sold at q
premium of IA per cent, vert down to 81 last
Wednesday, and on Thursday, the day after
the close OF the session, made a sudden down.
ward plunge of 20 per cent, the latest dis
patch from New York reporting quotations at
Al to As per cent. premium.
1t is one thing, to say that the advance of
gold is due to the war, which Is quite true.
and another, to say that it is due to depreci-
alton of the paper currency. There has been
a real aud fictitious advance. The reasons
are as easily assigned as for the rise Of any
other commodity. The export of gold has
been constant, diminishing the amount on
hand. The shipments from New York, from
Jan. to Feb. 81, 1885,, come to 81, 213,222 Six
ty-nine millions were exported in 1862. Mean
while gold is required for the payment of du-
ties, ard by the Government, for all foreign
payments, and for the payment Of interest on
the public debt, and for other purposes at
home. Here we have an increasing demand
and diminishing supply, acting together up
on the price, and all purchasers compelled to
go into the market for the gold, which they
can no longer demand of the banks. The pa
per currency is not affected by these iniuen-
ces; they act directly and only upon the price
of gold. This is not all. The sale of Ameri-
can securities returned from Europe has Great
ed large demand for exchange. Sterling ex-
change has been sold at 90 per cent. premium,
and gold has gone up with IL. The return OF
American securities from Europe may be due
to the war, and has certainly influenced the
price Of gold; but it would be absurd to say
that this circumstance has occasioned a depre-
citation Of the paper currency.
The fictitious advance has been caused by
the expectation of large issues of paper money,
inducing many people TO hoard the precious
metals. Then there has been a very general,
though mistaken, belief in the depreciation Of
the Treasury and bank notes. The general
uncertainty and even alarm prevailing some
weeks since reacted powerfully upon the mar
ket. A better understanding of the relation
Of gold to the present national currency, and
of the policy of the Secretary of the Treasury,
who is determined to limit the Treasury issues
= to the requirements of trade, will correct,
has already begun to correct these erroneous
impressions and their consequences. The
brokers and spectators. who live on fuctua-
lions, were quick to take advantage of all
these circumstances, and to their agency must
mainly be attributed what has been called the
fictitious advance of gold. Their dealings, it
is well understood, are merely nominal. The
new tax of one per cent. and interest at six
per cent. per annum on all pledges securing
contracts for the purchase or sale of gold at
any time after three days from the execution
of the contract, will operate, it is believed, as
salutary check upon these unreal transac-
tons.
There are two or three other facts worth
noting.
The British and American Exchange Bank
ing Corporation, to be managed by directors
selected from among the soundest bankers and
merchants Of England, Is not an institution
likely TO engage in an Improbable or unsafe
business. This corporation proposes to COM
nence operations by establishing an agency
in 10 hiatt ina
then, British capitalists do not look TO see this
country become bankrupt. Their object is
ito promote, and still further to extend.
1.-THE commercial and monetary transactions
between the two countries,
The recent fall of gold Is proof positive,
that If our currency has suffered any deprecia-
tion 1t is of a strange and unusual kind The
continental currency at least exhibited very
different phenomena. A hundred dollars in
specie were worth $l05 in continental money,
in January, l717, $40 in December OF the
same year, advancing steadily, tcithout fuctua-
ton, to s7400 in January, 1871, when skein
OF silk was worth $40, or IA cents in specie,
and is SO charged in bill of the time. This
renorseless, unfagging advance of specie
stands In remarkable contrast TO the decline of
20 per cent. in gold last Thursday.
But the alleged depreciation is commonly
referred to an over-issue Of paper money.
Well then, within a few weeks we have wit
nessee Else OF 20 per cent. in the price of gold
while MT single dollar Of currency has been
issued! Never surely was any theory more
completely exploded than this The circula-
ting medium of the country is not in excess:
it may he doubted IL it does not fall short of
the just demands of trade.
IL will hardly be worth while to resume
this subject. Ii certain peculiarly constituted
minds are still possessed of the Authorization
about deprecated currency, they are beyond
the reach Of logic; time will work cure.