The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-06-04
eIarirnHnraL.
tn. HosKINs. Newport, VT, Editor.
Money.

n lTlouuy oibhuB Wioh uo III Jul oono-
tum" few days ago, said, after long
conversation upon the recent turmoil in
Wall street "You gave us an elementary
article on Fertilizers the other day. I
wish you would write something similar
on the subject of Money" This sugges-
ton followed upon remark Of ours that
always, not long after the spectators
ceased to draw their usual revenue from
tolls upon industrial production, they be-
gan to be in trouble. Several branches
of manufacturing industry, and one lead
ing branch, at least, of agricultural labor,
have not been "giving down " very freely
of late, and as the non-prodpcers of Wall
street are very extravaganza folks, their
stores of money and good promises to pay
have in many cases run rapidly short, and
they have had to suspend" OF course
the rapid rascals, like Ward and Emo ran
upon the rocks and foundered first; but
business on the street is dull with all of
them, and will be while they have to live
ny edblnS one dnObuer.
As to that elementary article" it may
seem that subject which has been dis
cussed in so many ponderous volumes
would not admit of even an outline of its
elements in newspaper article. Yet,
when stripped to its bones, the subject is
not very complex in its anatomy.
Just how long ago man began to use
gold and silver as measures Of the value
of other commodities history does not ex-
actly tell US. But the reason for their use
is plain one. AS the little boy said the
reason why they called him Jim was be-
cause that was his name, so the fitness of
the precious metals for this purpose was
self-suggested, as soon as enough of them
had accumulated to be so used. Before
that all trade was by barter, and the first
"pecuniary store was the "pecus -
the flock or herd of the farmer. Lambs
and kids were his small change, bullocks
and asses were his bank account.
When gold enough had been washed
out of the sands of the mountain brooks,
and silver enough had been melted out of
the veins of the rocky hillsides, these met
ais offered not only much more portable
and concentrated form of wealth, but also
one more easily kept and concealed. They
became "weslth " from the very fact
that some desired them for this purpose
as we'll as for ornament. A large part, if
not the most of their value now, is because
of this special use, which nothing else has
been found to fill. This is shown in the
loss of value incurred by silver, when de-
prived of its legal tender quality by only
few governments. The mintage and
guarantee, by responsible government,
of the weight and standard of purity in
coins, are also important elements of their
currency, and consequently of their value.
In past ages (not very long past) kings
have habitually swindled their subjects
by debasing their money-that is, by
making more and more "dollars out of
the same weight of pure metal, sometimes
making up the weight with base metal,
and sometimes not. But these tricks have
been found not to pay in the long run,
like all dishonesty, and now the leading
nations are as careful as possible to pre-
serve the standard of their coins. In the
meantime the English "pound of silver
sank to about four ounces, and the French
"livre" (also "pound y to less than
fifth of an ounce. The kings were worse
thieves than the Wall-streeters.
There has not only been this great deg
radiation of the coin, but also, concur
rently with it, a decrease of the purchas-
ing power of equal weights of the pure
metals. This has arisen mainly from the
increasing stock of those metals in the
world. In England, only few hundred
years ago, sheep was sold for shilling
and a bullock for five shillings and
though the shilling (one-twelfth of de-
clining "pound y was larger, and the
sheep and the bullock were smaller then
than now, yet it is plain that, with all
necessary allowances, the relative value of
silver and gold, compared with other COM
modities, has considerably decreased with
in few centuries. OF the two, the value
of silver has decreased the most, 30 that
the ratio between the two, in equivalent
weights, has been rectifed several times
by decreasing the weight of the gold or
increasing the weight of the silver coins.
Up to about Thousand years ago the
ratio was one of gold to ten or
twelve of silver. Since then the relative
weights have been varied, from time to
time, until in France and the United
States the ratio is now respectively fif-
teen and one-half and sixteen to one AT
the present time the real ratio is about
seventeen to one, and our silver money,
coined at sixteen to one, is intrinsically of
too little value. If the new ratio is long
maintained 1t will become the duty of our
government to receive either its gold or
silver on the new basis. A reason (aside
from the effect of demonetization) for an
increase in the value of gold compared