The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1895-11-16
/. QUALIFY or MONEY.
Silver Is T6o Cheap and Bulky fci
Currency.


Currency.
In considering the question of quail
ity-that is, the real purchasing power
OF given denomination of money
two phases of this question present
themselves, namely: that of permanent
quality, and that of changes in quail
ity. The first of these is mainly mat
ter of convenience. Copper or iron
might serve admirably as denomina-
tors of values, but as money metal for
actual service they have failed. Iron
might be as good standard as gold or
silver, but it cannot be conveniently
used as a money metal Business would
have to be carried on with such an
enormous bulk of such money that
trade would be burdened by the at
tempt to use It, Copper has served as
money metal It may be just as good
for a measure as any metal But in
Sweden, where such medium of ex-
change was used down to late pc
riod, the merchant found that he was
compelled to carry his change around
in wheelbarrow. The reason why
we use gold, and are inclined to dis
card silver, is not entirely because the
former is a more staple standard than
is any other metal, but because of the
convenience with which it is used.
Gold would lose its place as money If a
more convenient medium was found.
Silver is becoming too cheap and too
bulky to be a convenient form OF
money; and so the financial world is
now inclined to discard it-just as iron,
copper and other substances have been
cast aside as the world advanced.
Again, for obvious reasons, stability
of value is an essential quality OF a
medium which is to be permanently
used. Indeed, it is conceivable tsas a
more bulky material, such as non,
might for currency purposes be on The
whole better than gold, provided that
the value of iron at different times and
places was more stable than that OF
gold. In fact, however, the very bulk
of iron when compared with gold of
the same value tends to make iron less
uniform in value than gold. A metal
SO bulky that given value of it can
with difficulty be transported from
place to place, and the local value OF
which is therefore so largely dependent
ON local demands, is naturally less
stable in value than one of which the
same value can be SO easily transported
that the relations between the local
demand for it and supply of it are prac-
tically fixed by the relations between
demand and supply in whole country,
! and almost at once in the whole world.
Taking the world over, therefore. for
this reason alone land there are others
gold is more stable in value than iron,
lust as iron is more stable in value than
potatoes; and both on account of the
great bulk of given value and the
great variations in their value at differ
ent times and places, potatoes would
be less acceptable than either iron OF
silver or gold as standard OF value OF
as medium of exchange.
Such are some of the reasons why
people in general find gold the mos
convenient medium of exchange. Ant
to the extent to which the wage Garner
is more directly interested, either II
that convenience of currency that shall
secure the small profit margin obtain
able in modern business, or in tina
stability of value that gives securit!
and availability to investments, he i
interested in having good" money
that is, money of which, other thing
being equal, great value is contained
in small bulk-gold, as compared witt
silver, copper, iron or potatoes. Sound
, Currency.