The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-05-30

QputS IN ms Controversy tLf 4Ai''i'' ~
the policy they propose to inaugurate must
be subjected to the tests of reason and
experience. and if it is shown 10 be mprac-
ticablc. or fundamentally wrong IN prln-
ciple we may be confident that 1t VIII not
finally command the support OF a MAORI
~ Of our people.
HOW MONEY GREW UP.
Before proceeding TO the discussion of
the lnain question presented, it may be
advantageous to state as briefly as posi-
be a few admitted or well established
facts having an important bearing upon
it. From the earliest times gold and sill
yer have been used as money, not because
there was at the beginning any
law declaring them TO be money,
but because, by reason of their
limited and regular supply, their
great value as compared with other things
in proportion to weight and bulk and dura-
bility, they were more stable ana
convenient than any other commodity as
measures of value in making exchanges.
Consequently, these metals We're used as
money by common consent of the people
for centuries before there was any law
upon the subject or an coins in existence;
they passed by weight and their values in
clfccting changes were deteminb by
the quantity of pure metal contained in
each piece. Each metal had distinct val
ne of its own, and when it was used III
trade neither the buyer nor seller troubled
himself about the ratio between IT
and the other metal. The laws uf -rade
fixed and regulated the actual and rela-
tive values of both metals in the purchase
hf
they do now. They had been used as
money several centuries before any gov
eminent undertook, by royal procama-
ton or statute law, to establish ratio
between them, and. when this character
Of Legislation was first begun the public
authorities did not attempt to establish
new values or ratios, but accepted those
already fixed by the laws of trade and
the custom of merchants. Coins We're
made. not for the purpose Cf attempting
TO add anything to the intrinsic or eX-
changcable value Of the metal contained
in them, but for the purpose of Gttesting,
hy public authority, its weight and purity,
thus avoiding the delay and uncertainty
resulting from the practice of weighing
each piece as it passed from one 10 an
other. That the coinage of the metals
does not now add anything TO their actual
value in the commercial world is con-
clusvcly proved by the facts that, in all
the great transactions between the people
of different countries, the coins are ac-
ceptcd only at their bullion value, de-
termined by their actual weight and fine
ness, and that bullion itself is still used
in making payments, just as it was thOus-
andS of years ago. Whatever effect leg
islatiOn upon the ratios, in connection
with legal tender laws, may have had
upon the use of the two metals in the pay
mcnt of antcCedent debts, it has never
had the slightest effect upon the actual
or relative values of the two metals in
national or international trade. For
many centuries, even after the commerce
of the world had grown TO enormous
proportions, the propriety of making any
given quantity of bullion, or any particu-
lar coin. Il legal tender was not even
suggested, and up to the present time
there is no legal tender in International
trade. Whether payments are made in
gold or silver coins, or in gold or silver
bullion, actual intrinsic value deter
mines the amount or quantity to be de-
livcrcd, no matter what may be the legal
tender laws of the different countries.
and no matter though they may have the
same or different ratios of value between
the metals within their respective limits.
The law of France, for instance, places
higher value upon silver relatively to
gold than is placed upon it by the laws of
the United States, the French ratio being
II ID to |, and ours being l6 to | ; but if
Is pounds of our silver, coined or I'M
coined, were sent to that country to be
used in the payment of Il debt or in the
purchase of commodities. it would not
be accepted at the ratio of II ID to |. or
at the ratio of 16 TO |, as compared TO
gold, but only at the ratio of about 81 to
|, which shows that neither our ratio
nor the French ratio has any effect what
ever upon the value or purchasing power
of the metal itself. Coinage is free in
Mexico, and the dollar. which is full
legal tender, contains 317.17 grains of
pure silver, while our dollar contains
only 371.25 grains of pure silver; yet
Mexican silver dollars are sent into the
United States and other parts of the
world and sold at the price of the bullion
contained in them, which is about one
half their nominal or legal value in their
own country The legal tender laws af
feet the debt-payinG power of the coin
itself in the country whore the laws pre-
vail, but the laws establishing ratio do
not affect the value of the metal con-
tanned in the coins. either at home or
abroad. because it is the metal that fixes
the value of the coin, and not the coin
that fixes the value of the metal.
ACTUAL COIN NOT NEEDED.
For a long time. during the early his
tory of the world, even during the me-
diaeval age gold and silver. in bullion or
in the form of coins constituted almost
the entire circulation among the people,
even in the nations most advanced in
trade and civilization, and. consequently,
the quantity of these metals that could
be procured and kept in use was a ques-
ton of far greater importance then
than it is now or ever can be in
the future. When life and property had
been made reasonably secure by the cstah-
lShmcnt of stable governments. and reg
ular processes were authorized for the en-
forccmcnt of pecuniary obligations credit
or confidence largely took the place of
bullion and coin in the commercial trans
actions of the people, and much smaller
amount of metallic money was required in
to the whole volume of bust
l,.,g.