The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-04-01
SUPERSTITION ABOUT GOLD.


notwithstanding the almost universal use
of paper money in this country, there stillre-
mains an inveterate superstition Is to the
movements and relations Of gold coin. Num-
bers of people, in utter defiance of the prin-
ciples of political economy, persist in regard
ing gold not only as the sole measure but as
an indispensable condition Of value. They
worry their poor brains numerically, and
vex the public ear to the extent of their
powers of CAB. about the drain of gold to for
eign countries and the means of turning the
balance of trade in favor of the United States.
The latter condition, they say, can only exist
when there is f1ow Of the precious metals
into the country, and they hold that the
country is sinking into universal bankruptcy
If the flow Of the precious metals sets in the
contrary direction. But what, in CONNER
cial sense, is gold, or any other precious
metal, when flowing into or flowing out of
the country 1t is simply an import in one
case and an export in the other case. Those
who consider excessive importation as invari-
ably an evil should, upon their own premises,
consider it equally mischievous whether the
excess consisted in gold or in some other
kind of merchandise. But the fact is that,
trade being essentially traffic, it is q CONNER
cial impossibiity for either importation or
expectation to be in excess of the other. Gold
is only one element in the aggregate Of the
incompatible variety of elements that make
up the wealth of q civilized country. 1t serves
to measure value. certainly. But every other
J<oo ~ fook of
ing price; for price simply expresses the re-
lation between different forms of value, each
of which is at once the thing that measures
and the thing that is measured. Gold is not
excepted from the operation of economic
laws. If it were excepted it would cease
to perform any function in commerce; it
would not be an appreciable item in the
wealth of any country, nor could it be counted
either among exports or imports in the calcu-
lation of foreign exchanges. Now, under
economic laws, expectation presumes equiva-
lent importation, and, therefore, whenever
gold flows out of country in trade, the fact
must signify the influx of an equal value of
some other kind. Where, then, can be the
loss by drain of gold occurring as a COM
mercial movement? 1t does not run away |
It is sent off voluntarily in exchange for |
foreign values which its possessors regard as |
full compensation. Assuredly, they can not |
esteem the mselves poorer by the exchange,
This is sufficient to expose the fallacy of |
certain writers in England and the United |
States who assert that the Western world is
itself by the expectation of
gold to Asia. China, India, Japan, it is ar
5ued, are SO many worthless to swallow up all
he precious metals. But, in the nature of
hings, as already seen, they can not receive
n trade gold or any other commodity without
giving an equivalent return. If, as one of
hese writers asserts, the vast and ruinous
of the precious metals by their
Pagan gods is the reason why they
IMPORT these metals almost exclusively when
hey would be better off by buying foreign
PRODUCTS with their precious metals, then here
5 telling argument against the theory that
he influx of gold is the mark of q country's
and that its eflux signifies the de-
letion of country's wealth. With manifest
one of the advocates of this
heory denounces paganism as " of all the
destructive and barbarous elements in the
Torld the greatest and worst" and afirms
hat christian civilization is the only civil
alton worth straw even in political econ-
my" Now il, economically, it is q good
hing to import gold, and bad thing to
xport gold, he must admit that pagan
arbarism, which, as he complains, does
be first, is better economic regulator
han Christian civilization, which, as he
sments, does the second. 1t is not to be
opposed that he is prepared for the admis-
ion. Then it plainly devolves on him to
bandon the theory. There is no other alter