The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-10-12
Rictrmontl nispatth.
r1rrsn,y OCTOBER 70, 1860
Financial,

lost values unsettled, commcIcNohs''".
at,o destruction of all the business 'i''ef
rosts of tho country threatened, has turhec
.hn attention OF many in the Norfh 10 aeon
s;dorot;on of the question of return &c
s,,nc;c noyments. There could be no such
ucorners. indeed no speculation at ail II
gold. if the paper currency were al par WIZ J.,
that article. It is therefore evident 'na' !"
rvopld he to the interest Of everybody eA'
cont sncculators that there should ne, u,
soon rs possible, an equilibrium estabnsheo
between gold and paper. This, oil c"utSe'
wopld not prevent speculation IN STOCKS:
nor in bonds, nor in any other article o.
variable value, but would certainty pun :
stop to all speculative transactions IN so''
itself.
Mr. GREELEY has simple plan for DriNS-
inc about the resumption OF specie pay
,,ents-it il. "Rcsumc." He assumes tha'
nobody really wants gold; that paper /
much more convenient and therefore iha'
If confidence in the willingness ana inc api'-
itv Of the Government to redeem It's OUT
standing grecnbacks were once restore"
there would really be no demand maze i"'
gold except perhaps for few millions "iacn
first the Secretary of the Treasury should
announce his intention Of paying 1t ont io'
preenbacks. We think there can pe III
doubt that Mr.. GREELEY is right 50 Tar I"
the o,reenbacks only are concerned. Before
t,,n war the banks used to redeem all thc!
notes in specie, although they were required
to keen on hand an amount OF specie equ"
n only onc-third of their outstanding clrcu-
latjon. On the first of this month the 1ota'
onount of demand and legal-tender no'eS
outstanding against the Government "aS
only Ss35G, 900 900. and ut the same time Inc
Secretary of the Treasury had on hand Over
one hundred millions of dollars m com. Il
experience may be trusted, it would there
fore be within his power to place green
backs at par with gold at once by simply al
yertisinc that he will redeem them as pre-
scented.
But to make the value Of the grecnhack,
coual to that of gold would be to Withdraw
from circulation every one now outStahd-
inc. unless the banks should ut the same
time commence to redeem their notes III
specie. For nothing is more certain thah
that bad currency always takes the place
of good one where the two are brou&h'
into competition; because every man na'u-
rally pays out the least valuable curfenc!
he has, reserving the best for himself. 1hu>
If haDpens that gold and silver disappear
from circulation the moment they cca~a to
be at par with paper. And hence IL "ou'"
certainly be the case that If the greenbacks
were redeemablc in Srcclc, and the national
bank notes were not so reucelnahle,
the ereenbacks would disappear entirely
from the ordinary channels OF business.
They would be boarded, rs specie Is now
boarded, and, like it, would he used only as
an article of merchandise. The retirement
of so large an amount of our present clrcu-
lating medium would produce such Strln'
cencv in monetary circles rs TO result III the
utter prostration Of the business Interests
Of the country. We take it for granted.
therefore, that neither Mr. GREELEY nor any
other sane nun will favor resumption b!
the Government previous TO resumption by
the banks.
And this brings us TO the question OF u
general resumption Of specie payments
The favol'tc plan OF the BELMONT party
the World, Mr.. SEYMOUR, and othcTs-iS by
contraction." Contract the circulation,
say they, and paper will soon become Sc
scarce that it will he rs valuable us specie,
and the banks can then resume at will. IL
seems TO Us that we have already demon
strated the righteousness of this idea. For:
Us we have said, if the Government were to
begin to redeem its outstanding greenbacks
in gold, these greenbacks would forthwith
become so valuable rs compared with the
currency of the national banks that nobod!
would use them, and therefore they would
ut once disappear. In other words, the
circulation would be contracted" There
would be contraction" with ven
geance-such contraction" rs would
startlc those wise men who now firmly be-
lieye that - contraction" is the remedy fol
all our financial ills-a contraction which
would at one fell swoop and in one day re.
duce the amount of the currency of the
country by several hundreds of millions OF
dollars.
~
sumo that the premium on gold is due to =
redundancy Of paper currency, and plausl-
bly, ARGUE that if the volume Of the latter
were reduced it would soon become OF
equal value with the former. Yet, how cas-!
is it 10 point TO facts which contradict this
theory. Gold was ut one time worth 2St
when the amount of the paper currency
was no greater than ii is to-day. Gold
has since the close of the war run
up and down the scale Of value III green
backs from 125 to 100, although there has
been during all this time no increase anG
no diminution in the volume of the latter.
These facts seem to show that confidence
has more to do with the matter than the
amount Of the circulation. And why not :
If Mr.. JONES is upright and honorable, and
therefore trustworthy, and is also known to
be worth million Of dollars, his notes to the
amount Of one hundred thousand dollars
would be worth III market overt just aS
much per centum rs his notes for fifty thou
sand. Mr.. SMITHS notes, on the contrary,
would not be worth anything, although the
sum total of them were only one thousand
dollars, because he has nothing in his cha
racter or in his possessions upon which con-
1idence can be based At least, everybody
will admit that SMITH's notes would not sell
for more cents on the dollar Tor per ccntum)
than JoNEs's simply because the ''vo-
lume" of them was less than that of JONES
notes. And surely if Mr.. JONES were to
pay specie for his notes whenever present
ed. it would make 10 difference to the pub
lie, and therefore no difference in their Va
lue, whether he had out one thousand