The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1884-03-01
a Gold Panic.

gold are about 20 be sent TO England, OF
else have been sent thitber, and that The
United States will soon have nothing but
silver money. They predict that this
country win soon have nothing but the
silver standard that ours Is ere long TO DC
a monomctallic country, but that the one
metal will be silver, not gold.
All this talk has a tendency to bring
about the very state OF things which these
crazy monometallists affect TO deprecate.
A manic Is a senseless thing. II wouldn't
be panic il there were any real reason
for It's existence. Itwould be something
else.
II the public will watch the movements
of these financial gulls II will be able to
see the force OF Mr.. MoRGAS's remark that
the silver money Of this country, or rather
the act OF Congress remonetizing silver
was all that saved the country from panic
In 1879. But for that act, 1t would have
been impossible TO have kept up specie
payments even II they had been begun.
The quantity OF gold in the treasury was
known to all the spectators in Wall street
and elsewhere, and but for the fact that
silver served as fortifcati0n 10 keep those
spectators and gamblers from the gold, a
run would have been made upon the trea-
sury and the resumption act would have
been failure.
These same spectators, or rather the
same class OF spectators, are now engaged
in locking up gold. The banks have been
made to believe that there will be more
profit in boarding gold than in lending out
money at low rates OF interest. The cry is
constantly repeated that gold is flowing
out of the country. Bonds bearing inter-
est in gold are sought for. A systematic
attempt is made to cause gold to command
premium.
What will be the result? What can be
the result except financial crisis? II gold
could command premium Of per cent.
it would disappear. Itwould Immediately
cease TO be part OF the currency. A
stringency in the money market would
follow. Then perhaps a rise in the pre-
MUM. Then still greater stringency in
the money market, and finally financial
collapse.
And all for what good reason' For
none; but because thirty millions of dollars
in gold were sent, OF about to be sent, to
Europe. These thirty millions do not con-
stitute one tenth part Of the coin now lying
in the vaults Of the banks and OF the Gov
eminent. Again: This country has since
the passage of the silver bill imported mil
lions of dollars more OF gold than Of sill
yer. at the same time that it has exported
millions more CT silver than OF gold.
How much gold ought this country to
have? Let us quote OH this point BoNAMY
PRlCE. whose book is founded on the view
of currency and banking taken In the lee
lures delivered by him some fifteen years
ago as a Professor in Oxford University,
England. In 4" Currency and Banking"
on pages. 81, %, Ell seq, he says:
..How much gold. how many soyereigns
or dollars, does country wantf To the
multitude the question seems absurd. How
can there be too much money? The more
money a nation has the better. With mo-
nov one can buy everything. Money is
true riches, so says the mercantile theory
so do English newspapers every day; so
saw the infationists OF the United States all
over that great country. Every arrival OF
gold from California or Australia is hailed
with delight in England; manifestly the
country is so much the richer, the money
market so much the stronger. But those
who talk i'm this manner totally forget that
gold has to be paid for like everything
else. 1t is very expensive affair to get
gold out Of mine; the glorious ingots
which have reached London have not
made England one pound the richer. They
have all been paid for with English prop
erty OF equal value. Why, then, all this
reioicing2 There arc few more melan-
cholv decisions than this indestructible
folly OF believing that 1t is always good for
a country 10 get more money. III farmers
were to hail with inccssant delight cargoes
OF carts ever streaming in. men would pity
them rs insane; vet in what respect are
these jubilatiOns over gold more rational?
Carts and money are both t0ols--instrl.
ments Of conveyance, endowed with the
same nature, and subject to the same gen.
eral laws"
"Tbe number Of tools needed depends
on the quantity OF work to be done by
them; that rule comes from the nature IT.
self OF a tool, and il is complete. spare
money is desirable, no doubt, Just as spare
hats and spare shoes, to guard against the
Inconvenience of there being none when
work or accident calls for them; but this
fact does not come into consideration IN
this place. And further, the necessary
ouautity of reserve for banks must be
reckoned as money needed for use. The
one point rs, Has every man who wants TO
buy or pay with coin coin to do it with
II he has, the supply OF money Is COM
plete; all further purchase OF coin or mo-
! ney Is senseleSs and a waste.
"But an important distinction must be
noticed here. The same collective amount
OF cash transactions will not always re-
ouire the same quantity OF money. The
same coin may effect few or many pur-
chases, according TO the circumstances OF
the locality. In gamblng-house the same
dollar or sovereign may settle twenty
transactions in o quarter OF an hour. In
the great West il may remain weeks OF
months in farmers pocket before 1t can
he used. In nation in which life moves
slowly, or buyers or sellers live wide asun-
der, or when 20 credit Is given, much
larger number Of coins will be required to
settle transactions which could be com.
pleted Ivy much fewer but more rapidly.
moving coins under the opposite circum-
stances. Hence Eapidity Of circulation.
81.
tity OF money or coins required. The rule,
however. remains the same under either
circumstances enough money to carry out
the cash business, be ii much or little.
must be provided, and no more-for more
] cannot lie used .nmiffinO snare SfncksA ali