The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1892-06-03
Aurelian says:

| refuses to rise. hole
provinces became the property of in
dividuals x x UsURY existed
in so frightful form that even the
virtuous Brutus received 60 per cent
for the use of money"
The United States Monetary Com
mission; in their report to. Congress,
says:
CAT the Christian era, the metallic
money of the Roman Empire amounted
to 81 800, 100000. At the end of the
fifteenth century it had shrunk to less
than $2O0,000,OO0. During this
period most extraordinary and bane
full change took place in the condition
of the world. Population dwindlcd
and commerce, arts, wealth and free
dom, all disappeared The people were
reduced by poverty and misery to the
most degraded conditions of serfdom
and slavery. The disintegration Of
society was almost complete. The
conditions of life were so hard that in
dividual sel6shness was the only thing
consistent with the instincts of self
preservation. All public spirit, all
generous emotion, all the noble aspira
tons of man, shriveled and disappeared
as the volume of money shrank and
prices fell. II is a suggestive coinci
dence that the first glimmer of light
only came with the invention Of bills
of exchange and paper substitutes,
through which the scanty stock of the
precious metals was increased in
efficiency"
Hume says:
Failing prices, and misery and
destruction, are inseparable compan-
ions. The disasters of the dark ages
were caused by decreasing money and
falling prices. With the increase of
money, labor and industry gain new
life.'
Sir Archibald Allison, in his His
tory of Europe, says:
"The two greatest events in the his.
tory of mankind have been brought
about by successive contraction and
expansion Of the circulating medium
Of society. The fall of the Roman
Empire, so long ascribed, in ignorance,
to slavery, to heathepism, and moral
corruption, was in reality brought about
by decline IN the silver and gold
mines of Spain and Greece. *
And, as if Providence had intended to
reveal in the clearest manner possible
the influence of this mighty agent on
human affairs, the resurrection Of man.
kind, from the ruin this cause had pro
duced, was owing to the directly
opposite set of agencies being put in
operation. Columbus led the way in
the career of renovation; when be
spread his sails across the Atlantic, he
bore mankind ard its fortunes in his
bark. * Il * The annual supply
of the precious metals-of money,-,for
the use of the globe was tripled before
a century had elapsed, the price of
every species of produce was quadru,
pied. The weight Of debt and taxation
insensibly wore OFF under the influence
of that prodigious increase; in the
removal on of industry the relations OF
society were changed; the weight OF
teudalism cast off, the rights of man
established. Among The many con.
curing causes which conspired to bring
about this mighty consummation, the
most important, though hitherto the
least observed, was the discovery OF
Mexico and Peru their gold and
silver mines.
Thus we see by the light of history
that contraction land appreciation Of
,, money means the impoverishment and
enslavement Of the people, while in
fation and depreciation of money means
national prosperity and freedom. The
discovery of the gold mines of Mexico
and Peru brought about modern civil.
ization, but by the middle of the pres
ent century the increase in population
and business of the world had entirely
outrun the increase OF money.
William Stanley Jevons, one of the
most eminent English authorizes, says
that-"From 1909 to l849 gold appre.
ciated AS per cent"-more than
doubled in value. AS result this
scarcity and appreciation of money
which means low prices,-general
depression of business and hard times
prevailed throughout Europe and
America-the memory of which is
fresh in the minds OF men yet living.
Notwithstanding the vast extent of our
territory, great agricultural and mineral
resources, and unbounded facilities for
manufacture and commerce, business
dragged along in the United States at
a snaiPs pace, with occasional brief
seasons Of prosperity, caused by bank
imitation, invariably followed by sus-
pensions of specie payments, panics,
contractions of currency and CONNER
cial crashes, las in 1918 and 1887,
caused by suspension of the United
States Bank) and long periods of
stagnation Of business and hard times. X