The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-08-12
The A B G Of Finance.
The Money Question Made Clear.
IN. Y. Tribune.


NOTES EQUALLY GOOD AT ALL PLACES.
No bad note has been used as money in any
part of this land since January 1. That was
never the case until this year, since the Amer
team Colonies had o being, and cursed them
selves by the issue of bad notes. After them
the Continental Congress tried to make its
notes good by ''fiat." 1t enacted that II any
man refused to take those notes he should be
treated as an enemy of his country and an out
law. Men did not refuse. But flour became
worth 500 barrel, and salt $50 bushel, and
the Continental paper was funded at last at
the rate of one cent on the dollar. Then for
seventy years notes of State banks flooded the
country and robbed the people. The civil war
brought with it legal.tenders worth less than
forty cents on the dollar. Since it closed, Tor
nearly fourteen years, we have been dealing
in money the worth of which changed from
day to day. Never, until this year, have the
people been free from bondage to bad money.
To-day every note is good, and alike good in
every part of the land.
How great this change is few men know.
More than half the grown men OF this day were
too young when State bank-notes went out OF
use to have clear idea Of their effects. There
were as many kinds Of money as there were
States, and if some systems were comparatively
good, many were very bad. Under each sys-
tenn, good or bad, there were banks OF all Sorts
from the best to the worst. The resulting loss
was great in every part of the country, but the
West and South bore tax it seems amazing
that they endured. Some of the older States,
taught by early losses, took great care to guard
against bad banks and bad money. The East
kept most of its notes good by strict laws,
sharp watching and quick redemption But
at the West and South banks ran wild. Many
failed; few were quite sound; and the notes OF
all were at a discount in the Eastern markets.
Eastern dealers could not take Western money
at par, for the risk about it was too high. Yet
Western man, who gave bill or note,
might pay in the money current at his home
In all dealings with him, therefore, the dis
count on his bad money was exacted; he had
to pay more dollars because his dollars were
bad Thus it came to pass that the rate OF ex-
change was always heavy against the West and
South, and varied widely at different times, or
as to different places.
If the only storekeeper in the country dis
trict finds that farmer gives him three pounds
of dirt in every hundred of cotton, or three
bushels of chaff in every hundred of wheat, he
can give only the price of ninety-seven good
pounds or bushels for the one hundred pur-
chased If the farmer buys goods, to be paid
for in that kind of wheat or cotton, he can
get only ninety-seven pounds OF sugar, or
ninety seven yards of cloth, where good wheat
or cotton would buy one hundred pounds or
wards. The West and South placed and kept
q <lsr.l.N hxrFr CrNH
money. The East made them pay, In the rate
of exchange on all bills drawn, part OF the
value of every bushel of wheat or bale OF cotton
sold, and an added price on every Dox OF goods
bought, to cover the risk involved because
their money was poor There was no wrong IN
this. Those who chose to have bad money
paid for their cheice. The East, as the only
storekeeper of the country. could not auofu
to take bad money the same as good money.
There was no other cause Tor the enormous ;
rates charged at times against some regions.
Thus in 1888, while the rate against some
nlaces in Pennsylvania was cents on the dol
lar. it was II to cents against virginia, 10 0
against North Carolina, 3 to II against South
Carolina 81 to 10 against Georgia, to 20
against Alabama, 8 to 121 against Louisiana
outside of New Orleans, Is to 80 against Mis-
sissippi, 123 to 30 against Tennessee, - to ~
against Kentucky, to 7a against Indiana and
Illinois, and to cents ON the dollar against
Ohio. No wonder "hard times" lasted long
when producers had to pay such rates. Yet
this tax to cover risk and loss by bad money
scarcely ever averaged less than to Il cents
on the dollar, which was charged in 1852
Even at that rate, the cost to the West and
South was enormous. Not less than "a ,OOO,-
OOO, 600 is now drawn in exchange each year by
the West and South upon the East; at the rate
of 1852 the tax would be from $40,0OO,OOO to
O,OOO 600 yearly. Though traffic was smaller
before the war, the rate in many years was
much higher. During the seventy years before
the war, who can tell how large sum in the
West and South was paid for the luxury oil
having poor money? ,,.. .a
Now for the first time since western ana
Southern States were settled, they pay not one
cent of tax because of any inferiority In the
money tbey use. Their money is precisely as
GOOD as that of New York or Boston. The
frifing rate of exchange now charged is barely
enough to cover the cost Of shipping currency
from one point to another. The use Of
money that is equally good in all States is
worth, to the West and South alone, at least
S50,0OO,0OO year-more than their share OF
the interest on the whole public debt
But the whole country also gains. To the
people of every section there was a constant
loss by the use of money that was in no two
places of the same value, never and nowhere
quite good and at most places and nearly all
the time very bad. Who can compute the mere
cost of detectors and the waste OF time IN