The herald., 1895-06-09
The Past and Present Financial Condition
OF the Country and Its Recent Industrial
Depression and Reasons Thereof
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MONEY AND CURRENCY
Money Is Commodity, and, the Other Hand, Many
Commodities Have at Various Times Been Used as
Money=A Little History

standard is required. snd here money,
which already acts as Il medium of eX
change and rs measure of value at q
given time. performs third function by
affording an approximate means of estl-
mating the present value of the future
act, and in this respect may be regarded
as n standard of value, or, If the phrase be
preferred. OF deferred payments.
From this we are led to consider the
qualities which are desirable in the mate
rial OF money. In the first place it is
necessary that the material OF IN onev
should possess value, (2) that it should
be portable, (3) that 1T should be the
same throughout, and that one unit shall
be equal in value to another, t4) that the
substance used as money may without
damage be divided and, if needed. united
again, (5) that it be durable. (6) that it
be easily disting guishable, and there should
be no trouble in aScertalnlnS its value,
ca tnat its value be steady.
OF course the industrial habits and the
tastes OF a people and their social condi-
tions may make that money when
among another people would be an mpos-
sible money. Rock salt long served the
Abyss inianS as money; rice, the dwelleIs
on the Coromandel shole: cocoa, the alb
original MeXlcans; olive Oil, the ,nhablt-
ants of the lonian islands; wampum. the
early New Lnglanders tobacco, the early
Nirginians and Marvlanders; tea COM
pressed into small cakes, the Russ ians;
dates. the Savages Of the African oases;
beaver and sealskins, the people OF many
northern lands: wheat, cattle and sheep
have also been extensively employed as
money, alike by the early Greeks, by the
Romans who conquered the Greeks, ana
by the Teutons, who conquered the Ro-
mans.-Francis A. Walker, Political
Economy.
From the foregoing it is easy to realize
that metal possesses the qualities desira-
BILE in money in great degree. They
are all durable. of q similar kind. can be
divided, and are easily recognized. and
in virtue of these advantages they are the
only substances now used for money by
advanced nations. Nor is the case differ
ent when the decision has to be made be-
tween the different metals. Iron has been
rejected because of its low value and its
liability to rust, lead from its extreme
softness and tin from its tendency to
break. Both these metals, as well as cop
per, alsv, are unsuitable from their low
value, which hinderS speedy transmission
so as to adjust inequalities OF local prices.
Their elimination. therefore. leaves sill
yer and gold as the only suitable ma
terlals for forming the principal currency.
The value of gold and silver changes only
by slow degrees; they are readily divisi-
bic into any number of parts which may
be reunited by means of fusion without
loss, they do not Geteriorate by being
| kept their finn and compact texture
| makes them different to wear; their cost
OF production, especially of gold. is so
considera bic that they possess great value
in small bulk. and can, OF course, be
transported with comparative facility;
and their identity is perfect. The reason
then, why the claims of those metals IS
so universally accepted is that they do
not merely represent value. as we find
other kinds of money do, but they really
are value.
The history of these two III etals dur
ing the past 1000 years forms striking
contrast. In some ancient states, suc.;
for instance as Arabia and ancient Ger
many, the value OF silver appears to have
been superior to that of gold, while as
late as the 18th century silver and gold
were OF equal value in Japan. On the
other hand among western nations the
ratio of value between the two metals
has since the discovery of America huc
tuated from IL TO l to "a to ].
'When the Romans acquired the placer
mines OF Pannolia. Dacia, Spain, Gaul.
ETC., they made their principal coins OF
gold and at later period, when the
supplies of this metal fell Off. they raised
the legal value of silver coins to one
tenth that of gold ones of like weight
and fineness. This ratio was afterwards
for l gold. In the Arabian states of the
| seventh century the ratio was about 81
for yet in France at the same time it
was 10 for |; in England during the
twelfth ce tury it was for L; in France
during the fourteenth century certain sill
yer and gold coins of like weight bore the
same value, hence the ratio was l for l.;
| in CASTLE and Leon in 1454-74 it was ~
| for l.; in Spain by the edict
of Medina t1497) the ratio was l0A.
| When America was plundered the first
( fruits were gold, no.. silver; whereupon
Spain, in 1916, and before the wealth
,, of Potosi was known, raised the
| legal value of gold to 10 l-3, and, as Spain
then monopolized the supplies of the pre-
| oious metals the rest of the world was