Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1896-08-28


of the commodities or services
some perishable commodity or re-.
return service. - .
1t was thus through the plainest
and simplest natural laws of trade
that goods and labor everywhere
became exchangable for metals,
and metals exchangeable for goods
and labor. Y
There was the primary fact that
all of them-victuals to eat, clothes
to wear, metals for implements and
adornment, and labor were pos.
sessed in surplus by some men and
were desired by others. They each
had relative value to all the
others, and this value was regu.
lated by the supply and demand.
Metals could be accumulated, and
preserved for long periods with
safety. Other commodities and la
Dor could not. The met ais that
men always most mighty priced
were silver and gold, and their
scarcity so limited the supply that
value would change but little while
held for 4 long time. ..
> Therefore it has been the Gus.
tom of men since communities ex.
listed to exchange goods and labor
for gold and silver, and gold and
silver for goods and labor, and also
gold for silver and silver for gold.
Such goods as cloth were sold
by the yard, eggs by the dozen,
liquids by the quart or gallon,
grain by the measured or weighed
bushels; labor was bought and sold
by the time consumed or the
amount accomplished. Silver ana
gold were bought and sold by
weight.
The gold and silver were formed
into pieces of convenient size for
handling. Finally to increase the
convenience the weight Of the
piece of gold or silver would be
indicated by some mark upon it.
A given weight of gold or silver
would be given some arbitrary
name, such as sheckel, thaler or
sovereign. To show how these
names came about we quote the
following from Chambers encyclo-
pedia:
DOLLAR is the name of a coin,
and the; unit in the mon etary sys.
tenn of the United States. The
origin of the name deserves notice.
DOLLAR is variety of the G erman
THALER, Low German DAHLER,
Danish DA1ER; and the word came
to signify a coin thus: About the
end of the 18th century the
Counts of Schlick coined the silver
extracted from their mines at
Joachims. thai (Joachim's Valley
into ounce-pieces, which received
the name of Notwithstanding
German adjective from the name
of the place ( Joachims.dalers', as
it were). These coins gained such
reputation, that they became a
kind of pattern; and others Of the
same kind, though made in other
places, took the name, only drop
ping the first part of the name for
shortness.'
The mark of the Counts of
Schlick on a piece of silver that it
was an ounce was convincing that
it was an ounce to all who had
faith in the Counts of Schlick, and
who believed that the coin was
marked by them. But others be-
gan to form silver into similar
pieces, and called it by the same
name. All who received these
pieces could not know the honesty
of every producer of silver, and
would doubts arise as to the
weight Or purity of the metal. To
meet just such conditions the gov.
ernments Of the world haye mon.
opolized the right to make coins
A government declares that in a
certain coin are so many grains
weight of gold or silver. The law
saying how many grains of metal
are in a coin does not affect that
coin value. It is the metal chat
has the value, and the stamp of
tho government is the nation s
guarantee that the weight is
correct.
When man EXCHANGES his