The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-11-13
Recent Publications.

MONEY AND THE MECHANISM OF EXCHANGE. By
w. S. Jev0ns. Volume Seventeen of "The Inter-
national Scientific Series'' New York: d. Apple
ton s. Co. For sale by Bailey & Noyes.
Although our people are money making
people and tolerably familiar with finance as
an art, yet of the science of finance they know
but little. The people of new country, as
Prof Sumner has suggested, are not likely to
be very careful fnanciers; for they have no
| traditions TO carry down the warning of the
past. "They are not trained to look back or to
look forward. They do not look back because
| the great achievements of yesterday only pro
woke smile to-day. They do not look forward
because they trust their power to deal with
whatever may come" In comparing the ex-
| tent and soundness of our financial Knowledge,
however, with that of other peoples we are
Otter misled to our disadvantage. We judge
by results In Europe nations are ruled by
classes of men, educated, long trained in ad
ministration, conversant with financial history
| aud experiments. When we speak of the
| financial knowledge of the English people we
have in mind only The privileged classes. Did
we take the opinions of the masses into account
we should find the financial ignorance of Eng
land incomparably greater than our own Here
he masses rule, and the misinformatiou of any
considerable number of men on finaucal top
les, no matter how humble the men may be, is
a source of danger to the welfare of the ma
| tion. For this reason a simple, accurate, and
well-considefed exposition of the nature and
uses OF money and the instruments of credit
in the form of popular treatise free from
needless technicalities, is to be heartily well
coined as an aid to the education of the gov
erning class, which in this country is the whole
people. Such an exposition the Messrs Apple
ton give US in the seventeenth volume of the
excellent international Scientific Series in
the shape of treatise on Money and the
Mechanism of Exchange" by Prof. Jevons of
Owens College, Manchester.
The book is not an essay on the currency
question, nor is it written in view of the cur
rency debate now going on in this country 1t
is descriptive essay on the past and present
monetary systems of the world, the materials
employed 10 make money, the regulations un.
der which the coins are struck and issued, the
natural laws which govern their circulation.
the several modes in which they may be re.
placed by the use of paper documents, and
| finally, the method in which the use of money
| is immensely economical by the check ard
clearing system now being extended and per.
fectei The work is not of controversial
character, though the author frequently finds
it Necessary to expose those fallacies which be
supposes his readers iRclned to adopt. In his
Introduction he remarks that sin studying a
1on har nil Al
we try to read or write. In mathematics we
practice ourselves in simple arithmetic before
we proceed to the subtleties of algebra and the
differential calculus. But it is the grave mis-.
fortune of the moral and political sciences that
they are continually discussed by those who
have never labored at the elementary gram
mar or the simple arithmetic of the subject.
Hence the extraordinary schemes and fallacies
every now and then put forth. y
There are men who spend their time and for.
tunes in endeavoring to convince dull world
that poverty can be abolished by the issue of
printed bits Of paper. I know one gentleman
who holds that exchquer bills Treasury notesl
are the panacea for the evils of humanity
Other philanthropists wish to make us all rich
by coming the national debt, or coming the
lands of the country, or coming anything"
The char 'cter Of the schemes here indicated
(quite familiar to America now are set forth
by Pref. Jevops, and full consideration given to
questions like these: Shall we couut in pounds.
or dollars, or francs, or marks? Shall we have
gold or silver, or gold and silver, as the meas.
ure of value? Shall We employ paper cur
rency or a metallic one?
Some years since, says Prof. Jevons in the
opening chapter of his treatise, Mademoiselle
Zelie, singer of the Theatre Lyrique at Paris.
made professional tour round the world. and
gave concert in the Society Islands In ex-
change for an air from Norma and a few other
songs she was to receive third part of the
receipts. When counted her share was found
to consist of three pigs, twenty three turkeys,
forty-four chickens, five thousand cocoa nuts,
and considerable quantities Of bananas, lemons.
and oranges. A. the Halle in Paris, as the
prma donna remarks in a lively letter, this
amount of live stock and vegetables might
have brought fsrr thousand francs, which
would have been good remuneration for ii ,e
songs In the Society Islands, however, pieces
OF money were very scarce; and as Mademoi-
sel'e could not consume anv considerable Dor.
tion of the receipts herself it became necessa nv
in the mean time to feed the pigs and poultry
with the fruit. This form of exchange, in
which the singer gave that which she could
easily spare for that which the ratiyes could
easily spare, is the earliest form, and we call
it barter. In barter the first difficulty is to find
two persons whose disposable possessions mu,
tually suit each Others wants. There nav be
many people wanting and many possessing
those things wanted but to allow of an act of
barter there must be double coincidence,
which will rarely happen. In the illustration
given the islanders were willing to Part with a
portion of their surplus possessions for song.
If the singer could have found person who
wonld give in exchange for her poultry aud
fruit some article she needed the exchange
would have been satisfactory. Or if she had
been paid in some substance of universal and
unvarying value, easily handled or easily
carried about, she could have kept that sub
stance until she met with some one possessing
an article which she desired. The exchange
could be made, aud the other party could keep
the substance of universal value until he de-
sired to exchange it for productions to supply
his needs. 1t is evident that the use of some
such commodity, some merchandise 5aadle as
the French call it, which all are willing to re-
ceive, for a time, would greatly facilitate ex-
change, as what is obtained by sale in one case
may be used IL purchase in another Such q
common commodity or medium of e1chdnqe has
been found by men, and they call it money.
A second officially arises in barter AT
what rate is anv exchange to be made? If a
certain quantity Of beef be given for certain
quantity of corn, and in like manner corn be
exchanged for cheese, aud cheese for eggs and
eggs for fax, aud so on, still the question
will arse-How much beef for how much flax.
or how much of any one commodity for a
given quantity of another? In state of bar
ter the prce-current list would be most com
plicated document, for each commodity would
have to be quoted in terms of every other com.
modify, or else complicated ruls-oft three sums
would become necessary. Between one hun
dred articles there must exist no less than
1850 possible ratios OF exchange, and all these
ratios must be carefully adjusted so rs to bo
consistent with each other. All such trouble