New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-08-19
THE A B G. OF FINANCE.
VII.


VII.
GOOD MONEY REGULATES ITS OWN VOLUME.
If more money were needed in this country as
some fancy, we should have more. For we use
specie, and our prices gold prices When the
level is lower here than elsewhere gold will how In;
when il is higher, gold will flow out. Resumption
has cut away the barrier between our money and
that Of the rest Of the world. and now II we want
more, more viii come There Is a plan to cut
through the sands which separate the sea from the
great African desert. Streams Of some size now
flow into that low BASIN but are lost in its sands
Let in the waters of all the oceans, engineers say
and new sea viii be created, and kept always
fun. Resumption Of specie payments in this coun-
try was a feat Of the same Sort 1t opened TO US all
the specie Of the world, which will now regulate
our supply according to our needs. In place of
dreary desert Of stagnation, IL has brought new
life. and thrift, and commerce. The African sea
Will have two sources of supply the ocean and the
rivers that flow into the basin. Our currency also
has double supply; 1t is open 70 the worlds
monetary ocean, aud streams Of new notes without
limit can be poured into it By the banks. Ot an
excess Of notes, there Is possibility Notes might
so multiply as TO fall in value, stop redemption and
drive ont specie. How far we are guarded against
that danger viii be asked hereafter. But OF lack
of currency, as long as notes are paid IN gold on
demand, there is no possibility. If more notes are
thought to be needed for local use, the banks will
issue them. II more specie is needed, either for
circulation in addition 20 the notes. or as reserve
against legal-tenders, it win come under natural
laws and according to our needs
This is not fancy, but fact as our experience fully
proves. Resumption has come because the barrier
of false prices was cut away between the industries
of this and other countries, so that gold was
brought hither and the yield from our mines was
kept here. The cost of raising wheat, corn and
cotton Of producing provisions, petroleum and
other articles and of moving them TO the sea, was
so reduced and the yield Of them was so increased
that it became more profitable to send them abroad
than gold. So we paid of foreign debts with our
products. and IN the process gave good work to
hosts of men who had been idle, and piled up the
gold from our mines and from abroad until all
doubt that the United States could pay Its notes
was removed Until we have an excess OF money,
prices must remain at such level that we shall
sell more 70 other nations than we buy from them,
and more debts will be paid, or more gold Will
come from abroad. So foreign debts amounting to
many millions have been paid since the year began,
and some shipments of gold from Paris and London
to New-York have been made since August l.
Even if there should be an excess of money here.
the first effect would be an undue advance in
prices the country wGslld sell less and buy more
gold would soon be waited for export, and some
notes would be handed IN for payment. In short
time legal-tenders would grow scarce. and prices
would fall back TO q proper level Thus some ship
ments of gold TO Europe in June were each pre-
coded, within a day or two, by closely correspond
ing redemptions of notes at the Treasury, and,
small as the movement was, it probably helped to
stop too rapid advance in prices, Of which there
had been signs. As long as notes are redeemed on
demand in gold, it may be hoped that our currency
Will have the sef-roguating faculty of hard money,
which never loses the one royal virtue OF going
surely and swiftly where it is needed.
As long as prices here are ruled by this great
regulator of the worlds markets, industry and
trade will have a healthy growth Of growth that
was not healthy, we had more than enough in the
times of bad money and false prices. Vast sums
were worse than wasted in making or growing
things that could not be sold, IN laying too many
miles of railroad, opening too many coal mines,sand
building too many iron and other mills What
good would it do to bring into a country settlement
zen lawyers, or twenty blacksmiths, where one
could do all the workl Bad money and ll-regulated
nrices gave undue profits TO some kinds of industry
or trade-to midde-men and trausporters especially.
Tins more means and more labor were drawn into
the very channels where they were least needed,
and our industry went on from bad to worse, getting
more iu-adiusted every year until the crash came.
Long prostratiOn has forced a return TO more
healthy proportion of occupations IL is SAID that
10000 miners have gone from Eastern coal regions
to Western farms a host of dealers have ceased
trading and gone to producingj and so from other
overcIowded occupations men have gone by the
thousand TO try new fields. No one can tell how
much suffering and waste would have been pre-
vented. had this misdirectiOn of labor and capital
been stopped at the outset. Hard money, by going
where It is most needed, has great power 10 prevent
this mischief it stops an unnatural rise Of prices
in any country or IN any branch Of industry or trade
leeps speculation within safer bounds limits the
charges Of transporters and tie gains of middle
men. and so checks diseased or dlsordefly growth
If good money should serve no other purpose than
to save this country hereafter from such frightfu
waste of means and work as we have seen, 1t will
urove an incalculabe blessing