Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-05-05
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.
A few Words about Imitation.

A popular fallacy has crept into the minds
of people, that the government gives value to
money, and strange to say many intelligent
mon fancy change Of parties would alter
the face of the financial world. They assert
that the general depression in business is
owing to stringent money market. Plaus.
iblo as these principles, which their argu.
ments hinge on, may seem, they are utterly
false and delusive. Value is always rela.
tive and never absolute. Coined money reg.
ulates its value on the same princl-
ciples as wheat or wool regulate their
value. In coined money it is a matter Of
quantity, not value. The law Of the United
States limits the gold dollar to twenty-five
and four-ftths grains, nine parts pure and
one part alloy of its value the law can say
nothing Henceforth it must take its chances,
for value is the market of the world. 1t is
mere fiction, a hopeless illusion, which
credits parties with the power to create or
diminish value. Given scarcity Of capital
as the cause of slender trade and shorter
production, and by "this miserable subter-
fuge," they hope to render the general prop
osition in regard to capital untrue, by deny
ing its authority. Unproductive capital is
the only check on a prosperous business.
Initiation is the root of the whole evil, and
its results 10 France we now propose to con-
slider. Early in the eighteenth century John
Law, an adventurer Of excellent education,
conceived the plan Of forming a state bank
under the patronage of the Duke of Orleans
His theory was, that money represented COM
modities, and was based on their value. This
idea continues to work in the minds Of many
and is as difficult to eradicate as the wicked
taros. A scheme so gigantic, which was to
make the state both bank and merchant,
could not fail to delude the multitude. To
collect the revenue and deposits into cen.
trail bank, to lend to all on easy terms was
deceptive bait to commercial ruin. Think
Of mammoth commercial company, body
of traders, with the state for n treasury
surely it must make the people rich The
state bank was formed issuing money whose
value rested on all the national property,
Commercial companies sprang up both on
the continent and in America to these the
name Of the Company Of the Indies was Civ.
en-. In such fever Of excitement was the
public mind that the shares Of this company
rose from par value of 800 to $4,000
To support such speculation the volume oil
paper money had reached the enormous sun
of s6l4, 100000, SlG6,GO0,0O0 more thar
was legally authorized to be emitted. His
tory records the collapse of this bubble as
terrible. Within the short space Of four
years the shares Of this company could be
bought for louis dor. 1.-The central vice
of all was mistake as the value of money
Money is a medium, and its amount cannot
be increased beyond certain limit without
disaster"
Towards the close of the century France
again tested the merits Of paper money, anC
the principle that money is equivalent t.
commodities. She issued paper money un'
der the name of "assgnats," whose value
was based on church lands conliscatcd to thu
state. The revolution was in progress anC
to meet the increasing expenses, as a last re
sort, paper money was set aaoat. Every
precaution was taken to buy up the rapid.
sinking value of the assiguats nevertheless
says Carlyle, "they sink without parallel.
There can be little doubt that assignat
caused more suffering in the French Revolu
ton than the prisons and guillOtine. 1t is
we'll established axiom that when once tn
issue of paper money begins, it knows n
bounds Usually the FIRST issue of such mon
ey banishes the coin, For this there is bu
one eifectuAl remedy, viz, to call in and bur
the paper, This example is significant, be