Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1864-07-20

LOsHnl 1AIcaEeo.
Some Facts Ib0uf oar CrrreueT.

/ tnlBg can De bought al us ola pEleef-ano
to place ths matter further beyond any
doubt, they tell Us that gold is the true
standard Of all values The utter fall
lacy Of such proposition is at once
/ seen By looking at the figures and the
facts. Gold governs the price Of such
articles as can only be purchased with
gold, and exerts but comparatively
weak influence on such articles as can
be purchased sith greenbaeks. The high
price Of sach articles is mainly due TO
the war If the Jurisdiction of the
United States was extended over. the
whole world, then, under the Legal Tea
der Law, the owner of the coffee plantA-
ton wsuld sell as willingly for green
1 backs as the Indiana farmer does bis
wheat and coffee, if the crops were
proportionateiy good, would rise no fast
er 10 price than wheat bat greenbaeks
will not buy coffee, tea, or any other for
eign product All such com modities must
/ be purchased abroad in gold.
Gold, therefore, dollar for dollar, be-
comes more valuable than greenbscks,
! and the difference in value Of the two
kinds Of currency must be added 10 The
price Of such articles as are purchased
/ abroad when they are sold hare. II ia
/ therefore true that gold does control the
price Of foreign commodities, but it does
not follow from this that gold Is the
standard Of all values, and tkat it is not
such a standard We shall now show by
facts and figures
On the 24ih of February, 1862, -four
Grade brands extra) was worth in Nav
York 500 and gold on shs sane data
/ $l03.
On the oath Of February, 1863, the
same quantity Of -four was worth S 80
and gold on that day was as high IS
$l74 Now if gold was The universal
standard Of value and carried everything
up with it, as some assert, -four instead
Of osly going up to $3.50 in 1863 would
have gons up to exactly $lI13, which
would be 20 per cent. on the price Of -four
and gold ia 1862 but -four advanced
less thsa q per cent while gold advanced
in the same time 10 per cent If gold
rises three times as fast as one Of the
staple products Of the country how can i
be said to be the standard Of ell values,
or that all prices rise equally with gold
1t must be remembered that the advances
Of "a per ceat in -four from Feb 1862,
to Feb. 1863 was cansed in part By the
crops not being so good for '63 as they
were for 81 If the crops had been
equally good for each year tho war would
probably have advanced honr that year
about II per cant, while rise of 70 per
cent in gold woald probably have Ad-
vaneed il from 10 8 per cent
Another equally good reason why
gold is not the true standard of value is
that some staples are far ahead Of gold in
price During the war standard brown
shestinEs have advanced four hundred
per cent, while at the same time gold
has advanced only one hundred and fifty.
1t will now take more than twice as
much gold to buy yard of sheeting as
| il would before the war Facts are stub
/ born things, and these examples show
| beyond any argument that it is not true
that gold is the standard Of all values
Second That it is not trse that:high
prices are wholly caused by the high
price Of gold and the Iowness Of cur
rsncy
Third. It is not trae ihat''a gold dollar
will buy as much Of anything as it would
before the war. or some staple articles
it will buy less aud Of sctns more than
il did before the war
Gold is only the standard Of itself--or
in other words the supply and demanI of
gold are the standard of its value The
entire amount of gold and silver coin in
the whole world is estimated at twenty
Eve hundred millions Of dollars, while
the entire business transactions of the
whole world each day amount to six
times as much, nemely, hundred aud
Fifty hundred hundred millions, or Is
billions Of dollars. So it will be seen
that there is oAly one. sixth enough specie
in the whole world to represent the value
of its inland and ocean commerce. There
neing then only one-siKth enough specie
necessary to supply the world with cur
rency for its business transactions, re-
sort must be had TO make up the deficit
of fve-sixths, to bills of exchange and
circulating medium of paper repre-
senting value, or the whole of commerce
would be blocked at once Accordingly
we find that for the last twenty years a
paper representation of value eonstitu-
ting even more than fve-sixths of the
circulating medium has been in existence
This paper medium has always served
its purpose, and is serving its purpose
Upon what is it and has il been ever
bassd7 Not upon gold for it repre-
sents value equal to six times the val
ne of all the gold in the world. What
then? The answer is upon land, houses,
ships, railways, produce, the stability of
governments and the good faith OF men.
The first-class paper currency that ex-
listed in the United States before the re-
bsllion, had just this kind of basis and
was good, yet it has been driven out of
the market by the better and more uni
form currency which has taken its place.
Who does not prefer greenbaek to any
of the old State bank paper that existed
before the war
Again, gold cannot be the universal
standard of value, because it does now,
and always huetuated, not only BY the
law of demand and supply, in its legit-
innate sense, but merely from men ideas
and beliefs, Il is q strange standard in
deed that depends on mems erronsous
iudgments--thsir hopes, fears, and i'm
aginations. Surprising the country was
at peace, and that there being gold
enough to supply commerce with hard
currency, greenbacks and all sorts OF
paper currency had gone cut of use, and
while the country was in the height Of
. its prosperity report should be. started
and believed on Wall street that q rebel
lion like the present one had broken on,
at the South, and that at the same time
war was declared against us by France
and England, and all believed that the
Government of the United States was
about to erumble to pieces-upon what
interest could gold be borrowed in New
: York under such q scare as that II
/ would go down into every mans till and
, stay there, nor would the offer of hun