The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1894-03-20
DECEASED BUsHEL AND DECEASED
DOLLAR THE SAME.

letter:
Gordonsvllle. Va.
The Times; VIII you kindly explain TN
difference between deprecated silver
dollar and a deprecated bushel OF wheat
How you can make an honest dollar u
II takes two bushels OF wheat TO buy
one? There are two sides 10 all ques
| lions.
May Heaven reward you for the stand
taken in behalf OF honest elections.
Yours respectfully,
To answer our correspondent inteiigiDly
II is necessary TO give something OF an
essay on money and explain the part
which silver has borne and now bears in
money.
our correspondent manifestly has a
wrong idea Of the function Of money
Money is nothing but a machine for eff
fecting a swap Or exchange Of two other
commodities when the parties who wish
to exchange the other two commodities are
so situated that they are unable TO .eX-
change them by a direct swap. Our cor
respondent thinks that money has some
thing 10 do with the value Of corn or
wheat. But it has nothing whatever TO
do with the value Of either. A man hav-
ing horse worth $50 finds himself in no
need Of that horse. but greatly in need Of
four mich COWS, which are worth Sl0O
There is no one near him with four mich
COWS which he is willing to exchange for
a horse But a neighbor near him who
wants horse has $780, which he IS will
ing to give for a horse. The horse Is,
therefore exchanged for the $50. which
are then exchanged for the four mich
COWS. Now. it is plain that the whole OBJ
ject and purpose Of these transactions
was to swap one horse for four mich
COWS, and it might have been effected
without any money at all, though by
using money the transaction is greatly
simplihed. Money had nothing to do with
the value Of either the horse or the cows
That depended entirely upon the cost
involved in the raising OF each and in the
demand for each, and upon those con-
sidcrations alone. Money is very valua-
bic as a medium by which these COM
mOdties may be snapped and exchanged
where the respective owners Of them are
so situated that they cannot actually
swap the commodities; but, in order that
it may perform this function this fact is
TO be noted: The money must be actual
money. 1t must be what the man who
parts with the horse has absolute conf
dence TO be what 1t purports TO be- and
what he knows the man who has the COWS
will have absolute confidence is what IL
purpOrts 10 be. The moment it becomes
possible TO raise any question as to
whether the money is really what it pur-
ports to be, then the owner of the horse
will begin TO object to giving his horse
in exchange for it. and the owner Of the
COWS will begin to object to exchanging
his COWS for it. and the element of dis
trust having been aroused, that money
will begin 10 lose its ability to perform
moneys part as standing fixedly and alb
solutely for a certain thing. This. then
IS the function, and sole function, of
money-to stand ixedly, exchangeably, and
absolutely as a gauge and measure Of
value and a machine for effecting swaps
and exchanges Of commodities. If the de-
mand for wheat has greatly increased, one
hundred pieces Of gold coin which we call
dollars march up to a pile Of wheat and
declare that pile of wheat to be as valua-
BILE as themselves. If the demand for
wheat has greatly fallen off, those same
coins march up to that pile Of wheat
and declare that it is worth only one-half
of themselves; and while the hundred
bushels would swap for either wagon
or for one hundred of the coins under
the former state of things, there must
now be two hundred bushels to swap for |
the wagon or for the hundred coins.
Now for the part that silver has played |
in money:
From the earliest dawn Of history silver |
for money, though copper and brass have |
been very greatly used and. until COM
parativeiy recent years, silver has been !
much more used than gold. But that was |
for this reason After the Roman and |
Greek civilization fell into decay the world |
reapsed into something very like bar
barism. in which the great mass of |
men were pretty nearly slaves in effect
They were so nearly slaves that the price |
of days labor was very low, and so
small that gold, in its small quantity /
could not be subdivided into pieces small
enough to pay the days wages. \ baser |
metal was, therefore. necessary, and sill
yer and copper answered the purpose bet
ter than any other Silver then, was the
worlds principal money metal at the
dawn Of our civilization. But at the be-
ginning OF this century our civilization
had so advanced that in England, the most
advanced of all nations transactions in
creased in magnitude so that silver had
come to be too cumbersome and the Eng
lish were using gold almost exclusively
except for small sums. Consequently. in
1876 the English Parliament passed AN act
which recited that great Inconvenience
has arisen from both those precious metals
being concurrently the standard or meas
ure Of value and equivalent for property"
and 1t made gold alone the standard ex-
cept for petty transactions.
Now. this act was no more than an ex-
preston of the popular judgment that
under our growing civilization and en-