Daily public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1892-191?, 1896-10-10
NATIONAL FINANCE
John LOCke'S Able Treatise On
Money Matters.


age has given to the world he defines money
to be necessary to all sorts of men in trade
both for counters and for pledges" This II
his quaint and old-fashioned way of saying
that 1t is both measure or standard of value
and medium of exchange. Money, he tells
us, carries with 1t as counters" what he calls
''even reckonng;" and as "pledges" it carriet
security" that he that receives it shall have
the same value for it again, of other thing:
that he wants, whenever he pleases. The one
of these it does by Its stamp and denomina
ton; the other by its intrinsic value, which Is
its quantity" The standard money of Locke's
day was silver. A given quantity of silver
whether stamped or unstamped has a certain
intrinsic value, and this intrinsic value consti
tutes the security that he that receives II
shall have the same value for it again." The
only purpose of the stamp and denomination
is to make a given quantity of silver serve as
| Counter" in order that there may be seven
reckoning" in all business transactions. The
stamp he correctly declares TO be nothing
more than "a public voucher of its weight and
ineness;" and so little Importance does he at
tach to the denomination that he observes
that "here in England there might as well
have been twelve ehillings in penny as
twelve pence in a shilling"
Basing his argument. as he does, upon the
fundamental truth, that there is and can be
no difference in value between bullion coined
and unconed, and upon the supplemental
truth that the value of bullion is measured by
its weight, he explains to his readers that
"the necessity Of proportion of money 10 trade
depends on money, not as counters, for the
reckoning may be kept or transferred by
writing, but on money as pledge, which
writing cannot supply the place of, because a
law cannot give to bills that intrinsic value
which the universal consent of mankind has
annexed to silver and gold" This is the very
essence OF the fatal objection TO our modern
American "sreenback" heresy. The Green
hacker regards money merely as counters"
and very truly argues that there is no need
that money from this point Of view, shall
nave intrinsic value. But he overloOks the
fact that money lie also "a pledge" and that a
pledge or security must have intrinsic value.
If it has no intrinsic value it will be accepted
in trade only on trust, as a memorandum of
indebtedness to be discharged at some future
time; and the moment that confidence is
shaken in its ultimate redemption its nominal
value begins to decline. until, when Conscience
in its redemption is destroyed, IT no longer
passes current.
Concerning the veXed question of the amount
of money required, Locke remarks that II is
hard to determine the necessary proportion OF
money 10 trade, because II depends not barely
on the quantity of money, but the quickness
of its circulation. The very same shilling
may, at one time, pay twenty men in twenty
days, at another rest in the same hands hun
dred days together" He anticipates the argu-
ment OF Mr. Bryan and others who advocate
the cheapening of the American dollar, and
even Mr.. Bryan's quaint illustration taken
from the "tceter-board," in the following
words: "There is another seeming conse-
quence of the reducing OF money to low
price, which at first sight has such an appear
ance of truth In 1t that have known 1t to i'm
pUse upon very able men; and that is that the
lowering of interest against which he was
wrlting) will raise the value of all other things
in proportion. For money being the counter
balance to all other things purchasable by 1t,
and lying, as 1t we're, IN the opposite scale OF
commerce, 1t looks like natural consequence
that as much as you take of from the value
of money so much you add to the price of
other things that are exchanged for It. ." .
The mistake of this plausible way Of reason
ing viii be easily discovered when we consider
that the measure OF the value of money, in
proportion to- anything purchasable by it, is
the quantity of the ready money we have in
comparison with the quantity of that thing
and it's vent; 10y vent he means demand in
its relation TO supply or which amounts TO
the same thing. the price OF any commodity
rises or falls by the proportion OF the num-
Der OF buyers and sellers" In other words,
Al 10 xyhN IL ba
ratio between money and property, but the
ratio between the number of producers and
that OF consumers of any article in the market.
This ratio is not affected directly or indirectly,
by the volume OF the currency. Money" he
says, serves us commonly by its exchange,
never almost by It's consumption" and he
adds, In direct contradiction 10 the theory held
and promulgated by Mr.. Bryan. (that the only
honest dollar is stable dollarD Though the
use men make OF money be not In lie con-
sumption, yet It has not at ali more standing.
settled value, in exchange with any other
thing, than any other commodity has"
The idea that legislation has power 10 alter
the value OF money moves him TO mirth.
these men," he says. "have found out by a
cunning project how, by the restraint OF law,
10 make the price OF money one-third cheaper,
ana then they toll JOhh a. NOhcb tnht nc nnhil
have 10000 OF II TO employ In merchandise or
clothing, and John A. stiles shall have esO,00O
more 10 pay his debts, and so distribute this
money as freely as Diego did his legaeies,
which they are 10 have, oven whore they can
got thom. But till these men can instruct the
forward borrowers where they shall DO fur.
nishod they have perhaps done something 10
Increase mems desire, but not made money
one Iot castor 10 come byi aud, tlll they do
that all this sweet juggling of money In their
disoourses Just goes 10 the tuao Of III All tho
World We're Oatmeal"
THIS 10 all very entertaining aud instruotiyei
but the Interest Tor Ne here and now OF Looks's
teachings on the subject " money eliminates
IN bis discussion 0f the nature and elloC, OF
"olipplnU" o. raising" coils, Money Il
"FalsAd" IN she senso which he attaches ~ the
word, when its nomiaal valuo sKooeas ne 400.
nal value. what no means ~ raised Gotta n
Whist W mean ~ deprfeiale1 coin, Whon'
pver eein has lwe values. one aoiual ana ens