Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-10-10

No. intrinsic value. But he oVerlooks
( ne TACT that money is also "a pledge T.
ana that Il pledge or security must hay.
4 intrinsic value IL ii has no intrinsic
halue, 1t VIII be accepted in trade only OF
/ trust. as memorandum of Indebtedness
T 10 be discharged at some future time,
and. the moment that confidence is shak-
i ~ ll rs ultimate redemption. its nominal
Z Eaiuc begins to decline, until when conf
/ dcnce In its redemption is DESTROYED il no
! longer passes current
! Concerning the vexed question of the
amount of money required. Locke re-
/ marks that It is hard to determine the
7 necessary proportion of money to trade
because IL depends not barely on the
quantity Of money but the quickness of
may. at one time. pay twenty men in
twenty days: at another rest in the
| Same nards a hundred days together"
tie anticipates the argument of Mr. Rry-
an and others who advocate the cheaper
ing Of the American dollar. and even Mir.
bryan quaint Illustration taken from
words: There is another seeming con-
sequence of the reducing of money to
low price which at first sight has such
an appearance of truth in it, that | have
known It TO impose upon very able men;
ANA that is. that the lowering of interest,"
against which he was writng) will raise
me value of all other things in proper
ton. For money being the counter-bal-
ahce TO all other things purchasable by it,
ana lying, as 1t We're, in the opposite
scale of commerce. it looks like a nat
|
take off 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 tne measure of the value
OF money. IN proportion to anything pur-
ready money we have in comparison with
the quantity of that thing and its vent"
thN vent he means demand in its re-
iation to suppiyD or which amounts TO
the same thing. the price of any com
modify rises or falls. by the proportion of
the number OF buyers and sellers" In
other words. the ratio which determine.
prices is not the ratio between money and
property but the ratio between the mum
her OF producers and that of consumers
OF any article in the market This ratio
- not affected. directly or indirectly, by |
the volume of the currency. Money" |
ne says, serves us commonly by it's en-
change never almost by its consump-
ton and he adds in direct contradic- |
ton to the theory held and promulgated |
~ Mr.. Bryan. Chat the only honest dol /.
lar is stable dolarl: Though the use |
men make of money be not in its con- !
sumption. yet it has not at all a more |
standing. settled value. in exchange with |
any other thing, than any other commod- !
The idea that legislation has mower 70 |
alter the value of money moves him to |
mirth. These men,. he saws, have
found out by a cunning project how. by |
the restraint of a law to make the price
of money one-third cheaper. and then /
they tell John "A Nokes that he shall |
nave 1900 |. of it to employ in merchan-
have 2ocoo |. more to pay his debts: and |
so distribute this money as freely rs
Diego did his 1egacies. which they are to |
nave. even where they can get them.
but MI these men can instruct the for
ward borrowers where they shall be fur
nished, they have perhaps done some
thing to increase mems desire. but not
made money one jot easier to come by:
and. III they do that. all this sweet iing-
ing of money in their discourses lust
goes to the tune of IF all the world were
This is all very entertaining and in
structive; but the interest for us here and
now OF Locke's teachings on the subject
of money eliminates in his discussion of
the. nature and effect of Clipping or
raising coin Money is raised" in the
sense which he attaches to the word
when its nominal value exceeds its actual
value What he means by raised coin is
what we mean by deprecated coin |
w henever coin has two values one act
ual and one nominal. we may of course
value is raised, when the actual value
falls Clipping was an unauthorized
me-, OF raising coin. closely allied to
,ouhteffeltlng. Every student of English.l
history knows that it was once so com |
mon and serious an evil as to demand the
seVerest measures for its repression So |
tna, y was treated as capital offence.
beng such an encroachment upon the
prerogative of the crown to smack of
veritable treason. Any alteration in the
legal standard of value which has the
effect to depreciate the mint valuation Of
me coin of the realm, is. on the part of
the crown. the equivalent of clipping by
private persons. Against this folly
Locke inveighs with a restrained mower
u logic almost amounting to intellectual
passion. Nearly all that he says about II
IS susceptible of direct application TO ex-
sting conditions in the United States and
70 the financial controversy which will
decide the Presidential election NEXT
month.
Locke was not bimetallist nor a he
lever IN the so-called double standard
IS appears from his remark that silver
and silver alone, is the measure of com
nerce. CThere was then little gold in the
World; and silver was far less plentiful
man now. Two metals as gold and
SILVER, cannot be the measure of com,
nerce both together in any country: he
,ause the. measure of commerce must be !
oerpetuaily the same, invariable. ana
keeping the same proportion in all its
Parts But SO only one metal does. or can
10; 10 itself so silver is to silver. and
soid TO gold. An ounce of silver Is al.
ways equal value TO an ounce of silver
ma an ounce of gold to an ounce of gold
ind TWO ounces of the one or the other
y double the value to an ounce of the same
BUT gold and silver change their value