Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1876-01-07
WHY Has tho tlrccnbact Any value,


1 ANSWER that there arc two reasons
for the continued value of the greenback.
The first is, that everything which clrcu.
lates rs money In community has Ger.
tain value merely In virtue Of its useful.
ness MS currency. Even tho value Of gold
is much greater than II would be but for
its usefulness as money. There are GER
tain conditions under which 1t Is thcoreti.
caly possible for unredecmod bills TO DO
on par with gold These conditions,
which IL is very important to bear in mind,
are.
/. Thatthcy shall actually pass current,
and be received rs "bankablc funds"
2. That their quantity shall be so small
that they are insufficient to form tho entire
circulating medium, so that some gold
has still to be used The universal cxpe
rience of all nations and people who have
ever tried II is, that as soon as the cur.
rency is issued In such quantities as cn.
tirely TO displace gold, II begins 10 depre-
ciate-that is, gold is ut premium.
This Is the secret Of the non .dcprccia-
tion of the bills of the Bank of France
during the last few years while specie
payments were suspended. There were
not enough notes in Paris 10 transact Its
business, so that gold had constantly to be
NHtN III putt llNN llO AAllCliiNi NutOll
of plenty Of currency been acted on, thCro
is no knowing what would have been the
result.
Now, although our grecnbacks have
been issued in n greater amount than was
necessary for business ns is Conclusvcly
proved by their depreciation, yet the
amount has been limited by law. II has
been still further limited by the fact that
the revenues of the Government have cX-
ccCdcd its expenditures, so that n large
quantity of the grccnbaCks have not been
in actual circulation. And so long as the
total issue of grccnbacks Is strictly limited
to its present amount there is no danger
of their oal loss of value
The second reason for the value Of the
grcenback is that there has been more or
less expectation OF its being redeemed
some time within the life of the present
generation. Though no one has seen ex-
acty how specie payments were going to
be brought about, the general business
sentiment of the country has been that we
must reach them III some way. The green
backs bavc always been counted Ms part of
the public debt, which proceeding implies
an obligation TO redeem.
To these two reasons, and to no others,
are we to attribute the fact that our green
DlChb lluNO INV BbuO NilC WY VI hll piC-
vious systems OF irredecmable paper mon
oy The reader must carefully notice that
neither OF these reasons is based on the
fact that neither of these reasons Is based
on the fact that the grCcnbacks are issued
by great Government. The unrcdeemed
paper of France was issued, not by the
Government, but by bank yet, rs we
have seen, II was more successful than
our Government paper. IT is not the
party which issues, but its quantity and the
prospect Of ITS redemption which determine
its value. Indeed, bank paper is, under
such circumstances, far less liable TO de
probation than Government paper, for
the reason that if the public is determined
the bank can always he made to pay up,
while the Government cannot. The case
is just like your preference for the paper
of small house, which must pay, over
that OF firm SO rich and powerful that
1t is above paying.
You see at once that if the policy Of the
intlationists were permanently inaugural :
cd both of the reasons for the value OF the
grecnbaCk would be knocked from under
It, and it would rapidly go the way of the
Continental currency, and every other
system of Government paper money that
has ever been hicd. With no intention
to redeem in coin, note would be mere
piece of paper; and if issued in such
quantities as would be demanded, al
though everyone might call them dol
lars" their purchasing power would di-
minish without limit.-Pr0f. S. NeUc0mb,
in Hd1per's Weekly