Litchfield enquirer., 1875-10-21
FACTS BY II. c. CAREY.

"The currency, however, was then (dur- ing the war), as we are now constantly assured, greatly depreciated, gold having commanded heavy premiums, as certainly had been the case. How little, neverthe. less, had been the connection between the supply of circulating notes and those premiums it is proposed now to show, as follows :-
 ~"At the close of 1862 the government circulation amounted to little less than $500, GOO, 900. As yet the State bank cir. culation remained undisturbed, and to obtain the actual quantity of circulating notes it is need d now to add to the above the sum of $1SO, ,000, 900, giving 6 total of $4S0, 900 900. We have here prodigious and most rapid increase, and yet the gold premium had scarcely passed beyond B. Two months later, in February, 1863, it stood at 71, with scarcely any perceptible increase in the circulating medium. In July the greenbacks had largely increased, their amount having reached S40O, GOO, ,00O, the premium meanwhile falling to 24. At the close of that year the legal tenders in circulation had reached S500. .O00, 600, ex hibiting an increase of $200, GOO, 900, at. tended with decline of premium to the extent of % per cent the February pre- mium of 7l having been replaced by the December one of 51. The following year. 1864. exhibits in June an emission of compound interest legal tender notes at- tended with a rise in the price of gold from 190 in May to 257 in August, and a decline to 2lS in December. Five months later. in May the premium had fallen to 2S, and this without even the slightest reduction in the quantity of circulating @T,. R~ifr~xsw~ although the quantity of notes on hand, come, as then stated by the Comptrollef of the Currency. very large. the premium had risen to for.y-six. In view of all these facts there is, as conceive, no pos- ability of exhibiting any necessary con- nection between the price of gold and the circulating note.
 such connection with the prices of com mOdities of home production, all changes in these latter having resulted from cir cumstances wholly apart from the supply 6fnotes. Cotton and woollen goods were high for the reason that a cotton and wool famine had been brought about. Labor was high because of the rapid ex- tension of manufactures consequent upon the adoption of protective policy, and upon the demands of the government for service in the field. Meat of evefy kind was higher because of the vast demand caused by millions of men in arms. Horses were higher because of army de- mands, and so was 1t with hundreds of other commodities that could be named. Real estate, however. remained unaffected land in Pennsylvania and houses in Philadelphia having been purchased as cheaply as could have been the case be. fore the greenback idea had first been started. Q @-sst l
 ''From that day QS65) to the present | there has been an incessant war upon the money of the many, the circulating note, leaving wholly out of view the action oi money known by the name of deposits, by means of which the few are enabled to profit at the expense of the many who need to live bv exercises of their physical and mental powers. Fierce as has been the war, so slight has been it's effect that at the date of the crisis in September o
 last year the circulating notes in use, witl gold at 15, were greater in amount than
 they had been in 1864 with gold at 25O
 the total having been S759, 900, 900. Max
 ing from this, deductions similar to those
 made by the Comptroller in 1865, the ne
 amount may be taken at s60O, ,OOO, 900, o
 about SIS per head, being but S1.51 il
 excess of that of 1882, when paralysi
 reigned throughout the land; when almos
 all business was transacted on long cred
 its and when that vast West winch ha
 since been occupied, remained almost a
 complete terra iacO0nita as is now tn,
 heart of Africa"