The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-01
Montgomery, Mimi, Aug. 2s, 1896.

consider gold commodity, as well as wheat
cotton or hogs. Very truly,
John Sheehy.
Montgomery, Mimi, Aug. 20, 1896
We do net think that the question,
what is the actual value of a gold
dollar?" is susceptible of direct and
satisfactory answer. 1t is like asking
what is the length of an inch When
you come to define a standard in terms
of some other thing you have difficult
task. Our correspondent is quite right
in assuming that gold, in addition to
Its use as money metal, is a COM
modify like wheat or cotton. AS such.
its value, like wheat or cotton, is meas
ured by what it can be exchanged for.
Now, if two bushels of wheat sell for
one gold dollar, we say that wheat is
worth so cents per bushel Turning it
around the other way, we can say that
a gold dollar is worth two bushels of
wheat; but that would be an insufficient
measure, because a gold dollar is also
worth so many pounds of pork and of
cotton, and of thousands of other COM
modities. Fluctuations in the demand
and supply of these commodities may
make the value of the gold dollar, as
expressed in any one of them, rise;
while. as expressed in some other one
of them, it may fall
value is ratio. 1t expresses the
amount of some commodity mentioned
that will be exchanged for particular
amount of some other commodity men
toned. Therefore, to find any express
sion for the value of gold, against
which, on the present monetary sys-
tenn of the world commodities are ex-
changed, it would be necessary to bal
ance an ounce of gold against every
other commodity in the world and see
how much of each it would purchase
Tables of prices and price variations
from year to year do something to-
ward expressing the purchasing power
of the gold dollar. 1t should ALWAYS
De remembered that value, being a ra
to- may vary with a change in terms
on either side of the EQUATION. Tins
Il we have the expression A equals B,
then the value of A in relation to B
would be changed by change in the
relation of demand and supply. as an
FLIED either to A or to B. About as
near as can be come to a plain answer
TO this rather abstruse question is that
the value of the gold dollar is not to
be expressed in any one set of figures.
but is comprised in it's purchasing
power in the markets of the world.
IN the last analysis the cost of pro-
duction has always an important in
>huence upon value. The question of
the writer as to how many days labor
1t takes to produce a gold dollar is
therefore pertinent. We have not any
statistics at hand that will cover the
point. The cost of producing gold varies
greatly in different parts of the world
according TO the nature and richness
of the deposit and the methods en-
ployed in extracting the ore The poor
er mines, of course, require much
more labor to produce the number of
grains of gold that constitute a dollar
than do the richer; just as an acre of
fertile land would produce more grain
than one comparatively barren. Gold
mining. like other occupations, is gov
erned by the fluctuations of the mar
ket. If it cost a gold dollars worth
OF wages to extract dollars worth of
gold, leaving no remuneration for can
ttal, and nothing to cover the list of
possible losses. mines would be aban-i
ooned, and gold would cease to be pro-
duced until the scarcity of it made Its
production once more remunerative. II,