Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1896-05-21


honest trade and the absolute condition
of permanently prosperous trade are
property for property, substance for sub
stance, equal value for agreed equal
value. Anything else, no matter how
phrased, is robbery of one or other of
the parties, and is Immediately destruc-
tive of real commerce, for it exhausts
the party who is made to get less than
he is made to give.
But the direct exchange or barter Of
scattered commodities by their respec-
tive ovvner is a slow, laborious, costly
and i~nconvenient process. The problem
of trade is to bring the scattered own
ers of needed commodities and the scat
tered Of them effectively TO-
gether as seasonably, quickly and
cheaply as possible. All the manifold
instrumentalities of are
merely devices TO that one end. And
the first necessity to that end is some
form and kind of property SO useful and
desirable to all men, 40 matter for what
special reason, and so uniformly and
universally acceptable by them that they
will everywhere among these producers
and consumers readily exchange for it
any item Of property they wish to ex-
change, knowing that it VIII, willingly
and without loss, be taken in exchange
for any other item Of property they may
happen to want and whenever they may
happen to want it. That kind of prop
erty for which all other kinds can DO
exchanged, which can buy and sell all
others, men call money. TO serve this
use most effectively and economically,
it must possess in the highest attain
able degree certain qualities. 1t must
have value, real usefulness III itself, for
men do not willingly trade valuable for
valuelcss things. Ii mast keep its value,
for men will not trade value for a vaIae-
less thing merely because it once had
value. They must have the present sub-
stance and not tho mere tradition Of
value. IL must be as invariable in value
as po~ssible-that, while it is kept on
hand awaiting other exchanges, it may
lose as little us possible OF its power to
buy other commodities. It must be as
nearly imperishable and i~ndestructible
IS possible. 1t must have as small bulk
as possible consistent with sufficient
abundance, both FOR convenience of
handling and for safety and ~cheapness
of carriage. 1t must be Of a sort Of
equally valuable, equally desirable,
equally acceptable wherever men trade,
else its purchasing power is not every
where equal, and its function so far
fails.
Wherever men have advanced beyond
savagery, they have by custom and COM
mon use adopted some then available
form of property, possessing more or
less of these qualities, as the medium
Of their exchanges. So long as, for any
reason, that form has had "a recognized
value and a~cceptability as wide as the
range of trade Of that time, it has
served its purpose, even if imperfectly.
When its acceptability has ceased, or
has ceased to be commensurate with the
field Of trade, it has dropped out of use.
History is full Of instances Of disuscd
and abandoned moneys.
Whenever a particular form of prop
erty has served as a medium Of ex-
Change, it has necessarily become n
measure of the value Of every item Of
property exchanged by its intervention.
When cowries were the medium, ev-
erything else was valued in cowries. 1t
was the same way with sheep, COWS,
cloths, hides, punches Of shingles, etc.
So hat intermediate kind or form Of
property, by first exchanging for which
all other kinds of property are exchanged
for each other, isfor the time being both
q medium of exchange and II measure
Of value of the things exchanged.
Whenever a money has been a kind
of property which existed in natural
units, like cowries, arrowheads, sheep
or other like sort, the conventional unit
Of exchange has been the natural unit
by which the count of quantity would
be made. But when the extension Of the
field Of trade and the changed wants of
men have compelled such refinements in
the quality, bulk and convenience of the
instrument OF exchange that the rarer
metals were more acceptable for the
purpose, M conventional unit of
quantity and some universally satisfac-
tory mode Of its cer~tiication had TO be
found, and out Of this necessity grew
the various denominations Of money,
which are measures Of the quantity Of
the property contained in such units.
and also the coinage laws by which the
quality and quantity Ct the property SO
used is officially ascertained and certi-
fed for the safety Of those who would
exchange their property therefor. This
does away with she inconvenient scales
and tests of the ancient merchant and
allows actual quantity to be accurately
ascertained by mere count Of unworn
pieces.
1t ought TO DO a mere truism to say
that coinage does not and cannot affect
value; that it simply c~ertiies the quail
ity and quantity Of a certain piece of
property, for the information and con-
yenience Of that world of trade whose
use and mutual agreement alone estab-
fishes the value Of the property SO certi-
fed. Coinage does not make copper sill
yer nor silver gold, nor does it make two
grains of one, nor affect III the least
| degree the rate Of their exchange for
each other in the open market.