The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-04-19
'' MONEY!"
An Able and interesting PAPER By
Rev j. F. Stout Before the
Social Science Club.
"A Brief Historical Sketch of an
Article Which All Like
To Get Hold of.

papers on Money" was read before
jthe Social Science club. There was
mot very large attendance of men,
jbers, but those present had the pleas
ure of listening to most interesting
paper, giving brief history of the
money question. The paper was pre-
pared by Rev. J. f. Stout, and in his
absence was read by Mr.. w. d..
Willard.
Mr.. Stout disclaimed all originality
in the paper, but simply gave an out
line as he found it in standard works
He first discussed what money is,
and quoted from Francis Walkers
works that "money is anything that
performs the functions of money; that
( which does the money work is the
money thing" A more formal defini-
tion is: money is that which passes
freely from hand to hand throughout
the community in final discharge of
debts and full payment for commodi-
ties, being accepted equally, without
reference to the character of the per-
son who offers it, and without the in
tention of the person who receives it
to consume it or enjoy it or apply it to
any other use than in turn to tender
it to others in discharge of debts or
payment for commodities. He class
flied money as primary, paper and
credit money. The first representing
the actual supply of gold and silver;
the second that which is the issue Of
authority, and the third the currency
founded on the basis of the supply OF
the precious metals. All sorts OF
things have been money, circum-
stances regulating the material and
necessities debating what should be
the medium of exchange. Entering
briefly into the history of money, he
said that ownership came from the de-
sire of exchange, and out of that the
desire for barter, leading to the ne
cessity for a convenient medium, and
hence the development of our present
system. The elements which go to
make up money, and which have
aided in it's development are, def
mite value of it's own; it must be an
article of general consumption; it
must be portable; it must be staple
export; must be uniform, indestructi-
BILE, susceptible of division, and
steady in value Because of these
necessary elements, we have come to
have the use of the two metals which
only answer the demands, gold and
silver, as the mediums of exchange.
He then followed with sketch of
gold and silver from early historic
times to the present time, touching
upon their production and use as
money and in the arts. The present
total supply of gold in the world is
estimated by the director of the mint
at S3,900,000 or about $3.50 per
capita, and the total of silver is trifie
less, making a total of both of over
ZOO, 100000. He referred to the
ratio between the two, and said that
for 300 years previous to 1873 there
had been but slight divergence in
the ratio. During that period it had
never dropped lower than l to 14.14,
nor gone higher than l to 1926. Since
then there has been wide divergence
in ratio, and he held that this was be-
cause of the demonstration of silver
by the United States and several lead
ing countries of Europe in 1873 and
1874.
OF paper money he said:
"This is an allowable term, though
scoffed at by many writer's on this
subject. The presence of the word
paper so far qualities and explains the
word money as to show that ma
terial recompense or equivalent is not
meant. BY adding the word incOn-
vertible, we bring to our attention
new kind of money. The word plainly
implying that it is not subject to con-
version on the demand of the holder
into metallic money. In common
parlance, the term paper money does
not consist of money based on credit,
but on authority, and consists in en-
gagements issued and circulated I'M
der the sanction and by the inter-
mediate intervention of the public
power of the state. 1t is not a degen-
Grated convertible paper, as some de-
clare; it stands historically by itself
A paper money note may be regarded
as a coin on which the seignorage is
enormous, extending to it's whole
normal amount, though it has no in
trinsic value; yet by limiting it's guam
tity it's value and exchange is as great
as an equal denomination of coin or
of bullion in that coin. On these
principles, we see that it is not neceS-
Sary that paper money should be pay
able in specie to secure it's value; it is
only necessary that it's quantity
should be regulated according to the
value of the metal which is declared
to be the standard. 1t seems to us
necessary to state that the credit of
the government enters largely into
the problem, and renders the nation
the sponsor of the paper money.
"There are eight general laws, &C
cording to Mr.. Walker, that govern
inconvertible paper currency:
"First-A paper money having no
intrinsic value may become the me-
dunn of exchange in any community;
its acceptance may be so complete
that for time if cannot he diStin-