The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-03-31

an increased money price for things OF all
sorts. This increased value would do no
good to any one; would make no difference
! except that of having to reckon pounds,
shillings, and pence in higher NUMBERS IL
would be an increase of values only as es-
timated in money, a thing only wanted 10
buy other things with, and would not en-
able anyone to buy more OF them than pc
fore. Prices would have risen IN certain
ratio and the value OF money would nave
fallen in the same ratio.
"Tbat an increase of the quantity of
modey raises prices, and dlmlnutlon
lowers them, is the most elementary prop
osition in the theory of currency, and with
out it we should have no key to any of the
Others" Ibid. p. Is.
I'm a state of barter, the price current
list would be most complicated document,
for each commodity would have to be
quoted in terms of every other commodity.
All such trouble is avoided if any one COM
modify be chosen, and its ratio of exchange
with each commodity be quoted. Knowing
how much corn is to be bought for pound
of silver, and also, how much fax for the
same quantity of silver, we learn without
further trouble how much corn exchanges
for so much fax. The chosen commodity
becomes common measure OF value, IN
terms of which we estimate the value of all
other goods. "-Jevons: Money and the
Mechanism of Exchange"
This measure of value may exist in any
article agreed upon. The Abyssinians used
rock salt for money; the Mexicans, cocoa;
the IOnian Islanders, olive Oil; the early
New Englanders, wampum; the Virginlans,
tobacco: the Russians, tea; the saVages OIL
the African GASES, dates; northern people,
skins: the Greeks and Romans, cattle and
sheep. OIhe money of Lacedaemon was OF
IRON: the SWsdes used iron as money; and
the people of Senegambia still use this
metal. The Chinese still use tin coins: and
copper has been and is yet used by Euro
pean nations. The Tribune would main
tain that whoever, in any of these periods
of time. or in any of these places, produced
that wonderful article called money, did
more service to the state than other
producers
'.The value of money, like the value of
ANYTHING else. is purely a question of de
mand and supply. The demand for money
is the occasion for the use of money III eff
fecting exchanges. 1t is the amount OF
homework to be done. This is not de-
termined by the gross volume of the wealth
of the community, since all that wealth Is
not to be exchanged. For u similar reason
it is not determined by the amount OF the
annual production of the community. 1t is
not determined even by the volume of the
products to be exchanged, as some classes
of these may require to be exchanged sew
eral times, and some but once. The supply
of money is the money force available to do
the money work 1t is not measured by the
amount of money, but is composed OF two
factOrs-the amount of money and the rap
iditv of circulation The nimble SiXpence
does the work of the slow shilling There
NAV be as much money force in 81 900, each
of which passes from hand to hand four
times week, as in $1,000 which change
ATonlayy tO
Saturday night. A decrease of the
supply of money will enhance its value
that is, will lower prices; and an increase
OF that supply will reduce its value-that
is. will raise prices. Walker.
1.-The need OF money arises solely out Of
the fact of exchange. That each producer
for himself should find some person who
has what he wants, and at the same time
wants what the first has, would involve
very roundabout exchanges and occupy
much time. But if, by general consent, the
producers should itupOn one article which
they would all agree to take in exchange
for whatever they wished to sell, that ar
ticle would become money Z x = be 1t white,
yellow, or black. hard or soft, animal, veg
etable, or mineral. There is no other test
of money than this. Walker.
If there had been no money, no medium
of exchange, in Utah prior to the opening
of the mines, then mining would have been
almost what tho Tribune claims for It,
mo machine economies labor like money
and its adoption has been ikened to the
discovery of letters. M. Chevalier
But in early days here, money was gen
orally quite as plentiful as other com
modities, which is to say that money, like
other Valuables, was scarce. Nevertheless,
the price list given in the Daily Telegraph,
July 4, 1864, shows that ''the measure Of
values' was comparatively more plentiful
then than now.
"The economic function of exchange is to
bring producers and consumers together,
and thus allow the division Of labor to be
carried as far as it will increase production.
The division of labor has no economic VIZ
tue except as far as it increases production.
The need of money arises solely out OF the
fact of exchange, and the economic Ell
ficiency is limited strictly to the occasion
for exchange. The interests of commun-
ity require as much exchanging as will Sc
cure that division of labor which will
achieve the highest productiveness OF land,
labor. and capital and they require no
more exchanging than this. They require
as much money as will enable that amount
of exchanging to be effected with the least
effort: and they require no more money
than this. No economic efficiency other
than or beyond that indicated can justly be
attributed to money. Walker.
AS there was relatively as much money
in Utah before the opening of the mines
as afterward CHERALD, April %, 1881 it
follows that other factors, as well as
mining, have been the elements of our in
dustrial growth.
The Tribune seems to think the labor of
the miner is Of a totally different species
from any other labor, and, especially, that
it is more valuable. A single quotation
from Mills political Economy is suf-
- 1irb hot
''The labor of the miner consists of
operations for digging out of the earth sub
stances convertible by industry into various
articles fitted for human use. Metallic
ores of all sorts are materials only. Under
this head production of materials, we must
include the industry of the wood cutter,
the labor of the agriculturist, the labor OF
the hunter, the shepherd, the cattle-raiser:n
Some writers one hundred years ago held
that no industry is productive except that
which procured the raw materials; others
held agriculture to be the only source OF
wealth. that all other occupations simply
proved upon that of the farmer; but it has
been reserved for the closing period OF the
nineteenth century to produce man who
claims mining to be the all in all, by which
alone wealth is created. Those writers
held that in other cases there is no actual
creation of wealth, and the Tribune says,
''The miner is a creator; the farmer only
improves a little on the methods of the
stone age" Query; What is it that
the miner creates?'' 1.-The precious metal
itself has not paid in the aggregate
for the expense of getting it. When one
man was successful twenty led."-New
York World.
The service the mines have rendered is
not so much what they have produced, as
that they have induced capitalists to come
among US.
"The idea of measure of value must not
be COMPOUNDED with the idea of regulator,