Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1873-10-31
ABoston View of Money!

an exclamation point after several article.
written from the standpoint of the Labor
Reformer, the Banker and the Manufac
turer, which may be considered as the
view of the subject from an editorial anC
transcendental point 'of Observation. !" The
article being written by the editor, Rev
Edward e. HALE, may be, said to embody
the th Religious aspect Of the subject also
We extract:
|. Money bea1 money, to-day, within the
business world, as a whole is gold or sill
yer. N Nothing s'9t else is real money eUe'y
ac1ere. '4' '"'' -'A''D . sE"'4
/ Currency is convenient name for thai
money, or that substitute. for it. which
foaos, like currents, throughout the commu
nifty, within a single nation, and serves tc
transact the daily businesscof exchanging
all sorts of values within. that nation
Money, therefore, is the currency of the
world, by this definition 3aaTu. a1d
,.,T The name money is usually applied
for shortness, both to specie and to bank.
notes-that is, to currency also and the
practice has caused aconfusion i'm some
minds, where it is found that bank notes
and specie are equally reckoned money
Paper money will serve exactly the pur-
poses of specie only on one condition
hat the holder of it can get specie for ii
on demand. This condition is subject to
notifications. Patriotism has served in.
stead of gold for time, but has never
prevented paper from becoming worth.
less in a little while, if specie could not
be had for it, Mutual confidence is far
less efficient than patriotism, An agree
ment may, be imagined by all the people
that there need not be any gold at all in the
United States > but that siscrip' like our
present paper, small change, and bills like
our ''greenbacks," should be used as they
are now, but without any prospect or pur-
pose of gold ever being asked or given
for them, But this is only an. .imagtna-
tion, because no approach to unanimity,
if even majority, could, as things are,
be .securedf for ites And, secondly it is a
melancholy fact that men have notrso
much faith in each others honesty, OF
wisdom either, as would be necessary to
support such a plan. a;r,-az,,r-.,.s.,. al, ~
The reasons why gold and silver are
chosen for money are plain; they have
jthe qualities for it, namely: beauty and
usefulness, diyisibility and consolidabil
lty without change of quality, incorrupti-
bihty, costliness, and steadiness of value
Diamond cannot be suitably divided and
united, and is not useful enough. Iron is
too cheap and too tcorruptible. Plati-
mum is not'useful enough, because it is so
unmanageable, and it is not beautiful
enough. And so on about absolutely
everything except gold and silver. Find
another article having similar qualities,
and you will assuredly have another ma
,terlal for specie currency. The main
basis of the value of real money is the in
trinsic value of the material as merchand-
ise. Coming is an authentication or en-
dorsement, which is supposed to certify
everybody that his dollar 40 dollar, and
such a certificate adds something to- the
intrinsic value. Convenience, as a uni
versal standard for valuing, adds further
to the merchandise value of coined money,
just as a yardrstick gains value over its
ireWood value, or its slat value, because
it is a standard of length; and'a further
value if, it has been adjusted and certified
by the inspector of weights and measures.
How much money does a community
needs? AnSaoer: Enough to carry on with
ease all the transfersFof value in the COM
munity;; the payment of wages; the daily
expenses the sales in the shops; the
transportation of freight; the fares of
passengers Il the sales OF, real estate; in
short, the daily life in business. So far in
civilized history, the quantity required
bears proportion to the number of peo-
pie who use it, and to the property they
own, which has an analogy with the pro-
portion of oil in the bearings of steam
engine to the engine itself. For instance,
during the, four years ending June 80,
1871, it may be stated as rough approx
nation that the currency which oiled the
business bearings of the United States
was rather more than ten dollars to each
soul of the population. This includes
whatever you happened to have in your
wallet in those years; all your bank
account; what the storekeeper was using
in his business, and 50 on. The round
sums total which are near enough to the
exact figures to show the oSlipg Office of
money, are these: the whole Of our cur
rency, about four hundred million dol
lars; the whole of, our property, real and
personal about fourteen thousand million
dollars;r the whole of our population,
towards forty million. Omit some CT
pliers and we may say, in handler figures,
that on an average, in nation situated as
ours is at present, every four souls, worth
fourteen hundred dollars amongst them,
do not need more than forty dollars in
cash, being ten dollars. a head, to, keep
their business straight. This would be
very likely to faipwith any. one separate
four; .butait holds good of the whole of
the men, women and children together;
and if larger sum is in anybody's hands,
less sum is in the hands of somebody
else. lof aa4one 4e a. f-,,--, 81 eaf.
), If paper mo ney will not do alone, that
is, without any specie at all, why will it
do in part? vAnswer: Because paper
promises to pay (greenbacks, for instance)
will do great part of the changing OF
values, although they will not do all of
it; and if. there is specie enough within
reach at any time to serve the purposes OF
those who will not take promises to pay
specie, that maintains the credit of the
rest of the promises 1t turns out that in
practice, and on a large scale, it will do
if there is about a quarter as much specie
always ready as the whole of the paper
money that isigoing.g This is pretty sure
to meet the wants of all who insist on
real money That is, mutual conf
dence will uphold three-quarters of our
currency; we might almost say Christian
civilization is, at present at business dis
count of twenty-five cent Raa I
auBut we cannot get gold for even quar-
ter of our greenbacks, except at a heavy
discount, and yet they serve pretty good
purpose SO far Ought they not to break
down on these principles !? Aaasaoer: Their
gold basis exists, but it is two stories
down instead of one. The United States,
under certain conditions gives its bonds
for greenbacks; this ], is ! the first story
down. Under certain other conditions.
the. United States gives gold for these
bonds, and meanwhile it pays gold inter
est on them. This is the second story
down, where you come to the real specie
foundation. Mutual confidence keeps the
greenbecks as near gold value as they are.
a pvI,oova 5yhosx wants to see ! fhe yyaV in