The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1898-04-27
INTRINSIC VALUE.

II Is Only Those Who Prate Of In
ninsic Value in Money i is q
Creation Of Law.
Money is not commodity, as
has been claimed and taught by
college president and professors
by writer's and essayists on politi-
cal economy. It is a function CIV
en- to a commodity by the supreme
power IN a state or impaired to It
Thy common consent, observes the
Cincinnati Enquirer Aristotle.
more than two thousand years ago,
said that money was creation OF
law. Money is not a thing, but the
endowment of a thing. In the his
tory of our race almost every COM
modify has been thus endowed.
Every savage tribe has found mon
ey indispensable to their existence.
Wampum beads and shells per
formed the same Office for the saw
age IS gold and silver do for the
most highly civilized nations. Few
and simple as are the wants ofman
in a primitive state, they find that
mere barter or exchange ofcommo-
dities will not answer the require
ments. Man cannot live if isola-
ted. He cannot supply his simp=
lest wants without the assistance
of his fellow man. He is the most
dependent of all the beings God has
created
Almost everything has been
clothed with the function of mon
ey in different countries and differ
emit periods either by common con-
sent or by the operation of law.
Iron nails were once money in
Scotland. Goldfish were legal ten
der in Newfoundland musket balls
in Massachusetts; tobacco was
money in old Virginia. The law
prescribed the rate of interest al
lowed was s per cent per annum,
payable in kind. Fines and pen
alties, taxes and salaries we're pay
able in tobacco. It is an amusing
fact that the penalties inflicted up
on minister of the gospel, just
ice of the Peace or other person
authorized to perform the ceremo-
ny of marriage. who soIemnized a
marriage between a white and col
ored person should, upon convict
ion, be fined "the sum of two
thousand pounds of tobacco, one
half for the use ofcommon schools. .
In the early settlements in Ohio
and Indiana, barter or exchange
of commodities was the mode of
doing business. An old pioneer
in Portage county informed the
writer that he acted as an agent of
John Jacob Asst, r in the purchase
of furs from the Indians. He said
he shipped $1,000 coon skins in
one season, paying Tor them in
blankets, beads, f-ewater and
trinkets of every kind Ears and
blankets weYs not money, but an
exchange of valuable or desirable
commodities. They are wanting
in essential features of money. F..
a. Walker, the great American
economist, who is recognized as
authority, gives the best defini-
ton which has come under our
observation.
He says that money is that
which passes from hand to hand
throu yhout the community in
final discharge of debts and full
payment for commodities, being
accepted equally without refer
ence to the character or credit of
the person who gives it and with
out the intention of the person
who receives it to consume it or to
enjoy it or apply it to any other
use than in turn to tender it to
others in discharge of debts or
payment for commodities"
This disposes of all the nonsense
about '.intrinsic'' value of money.
1t need not possess any value in
itself. 1t is creature of law,
without any reference to the
material of which it is made. It
is simply an endowment of func-
ton.
Spain is a decaying, ignorant
well nigh bankrupt nation, over
1000 miles distant from her base
of operations in Cuba. She has a
population of 100000, Is per
cent of which is illiterate. She is
the lowest in Europe. practically
without commerce. Industries, mon