The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1874-02-20
WHAT ARE THE DISORDERS OF THE
CURRENCY.

|
culates in such manner as to be easily
engrossed and taken out of general use by
combinations Of specializing capitalists.
1t is so uniformly valuable throughout the
country, it is so modified, that it can be
readily concentrated in great centres of
speculation, there to be employed in. the |
wild gambling of the stock boards, rather (
than in the legitimate business of mer-
chandize and trade.
Our ante-war paper currency had not |
this general circulation. 1t was a local |
currency. Its tendency was always and |
strongly, homeward, to the localities of |
issue. IL was very defective currency, |
and we hope it may never be restored
bot it had at least the merit, by its home-
staying habits, of serving the local COM
munties for whose use it was issued and
could not be monopolized for specializing
purposes, by powerful and reckless opera.
tors in the great centres OF business and
speculation.
THE REAL PROBLEMS OF THE HOUR.
How to bring the currency to the value
of gold how to prevent its undue con-
centration in special localities; how to
confne its employment approximately to
the legitimate operations of trade, and
how to render it available for the mitiga-
ton of financial pressure when it occurs,
seem to be the imperious problems of the
hour. To arrive at specie payments, with
circulation fairly distributed over the
country, current everywhere, and availa-
| BILE to business men for their legitimate en-
| terprises, at fair rates of interest, as well
| in times of financial crisis as Of ease,
seems to be the disideratum of the times.
CONTRACTION A FAILURE.
The great financial authorities of the
country have insisted that contraction was
the remedy fer the deprecated currency
contraction Of the greenback debt OF the
national government alone, and not Of
the general national debt, or of the gen.
eral paper debt of the whole country.
They have applied this measure with
remorseless rigor for long series OF
years. We are neither an advocate of
contraction nor of initiation, applied merely
to the paper currency; because neither
fallacy can materially affect the relative
value of paper and gold. The amount OF
paper money afoat is certainly one of a
dozen or more conditions on which specie
: payments depend but it is only one Of
them. There are other conditions more
,, controlling and the distressing experience
which we have had with contraction, will,
it is hoped. drive US to other experiments
and to a better policy. 'Many of oul
,, wisest measures of finance" says Lore
: Overstone, "haye originated, not in thu
+ unprompted suggestions Of forecast, but il
the necessity of applying remedy to evils
;: the nature of aehich zoe haze learned TO IA,
! derstand only By feeling their Effects"
E SPECIE PAYMENTS AS FAR OFF AS
! EVER.
Everybody in the land desires that al
our money shall be of the same value
But although gold has commanded in tn,
last half year smaller premium than
a has done for many years, we all feel tina
T specie payments are still beyond reacl
t through any measures yet tried for bring
4 ing them about. $50 I
9 PRICES ARE NOT DEPENDENT upon
THE VOLUME OF CIRCULATION.
' The method by which the bankers, mer
: chants, and high financial authorities hav
n insisted upon restoring specie payment
e has been by contracting the volume of tn
n currency They have vehemently and ar
!. bitrarily insisted upon contraction, pur
4 and simple, without artifce or indirection.
n They have assumed, dogmatically
v that the cause of the gold premium ha
n been the redundance merely of the cul
It rency--of this form alone of the prodigiou
mass of our paper securities. They hav
!, assumed again, that by contracting tn
currency alone, it would be made to rise j
value, and become and remain equivaler
q to gold.
= A MOST COSTLY AND DISASTROUS EN-
PERIENCE
q has proved both these ideas to be falli
v cious. Facts show it. On the first
d May, 1865, the total circulation of tn
It country, made up Of legal tenders, posts
l. and fractional currency, one and two-yea
,e five per cent. notes, compound ntere.
h notes, and national bank notes, wa
Il $SO7, 2ls, 100; and the premium on col
,r was 2Se cents. On the first of Angus
n 1869, after eleven states had been adde
q to the area of circulation, the total amour
IS of the currency, after deducting the re
serves held by the banks, was $646, 900
j. 600; and the premium on gold had rise
n to 331 cents. Thus, in spite of q COZ
e traction to the amount of $160, 00O,0 0(
# and the addition of eleven states to tn
d Union, there had been an Advance Of e,
e cents in the gold premium. We hay
n now carried
r, THE PROCRUSTEAN POLICY OF CON
IS TRACTION -
is S100,000.000 farther. at the expense {
+ destroying the greatest houses, crushin
'e the most fourishing enterprises, and turr
l. ing out of employment the best classes
'e skilled workmen in the country and W
q still have difference of seven to eleye
IS cents between gold and currency to ovel
IS come, which is as hard to surmount in on
e enfeebled condition, as the thirty-thre
u cents seemed to be in 1859. During th
le past three months the currency has bee
10 diminished, possibly one-half, by hoard
:. ing; and yet the gold premium has gon
I up, Notwithstanding, from seven to ten c
n eleven cents. Mere contraction is plainl
= not the process by which to bring abou
} specie payments.
". As the premium on gold depends, i
/ great part, on the export demand for it,
IS is indeed true that contraction may be cal
}. ried to such an extreme as to paralyze i'm
t portations and thus bring gold into fat
: titious equivalency with the currency
o but nobody wants specie payments 9
J. the cost OF ruin to the foreign trad
e and domestic business of the cour
t try. The public have been enduring tina
Il sort of treatment for the alleged disease