Natchitoches populist., 1898-05-27
FIRST RINCIPLES.
TWO GREAT HISTORIANS ON
MONETARY SCIENCE.
Hume and Alison Knew That the Quantity
of Money Controls Prices-What
They Said of Contraction and Ex-
pausiofi.

panstoh!
The fame of the great historians aid
philosophers, David Hume and Sir
Archibald Alison, is worldwide and
will be familiar to the people as long
as any record Of modern civilization
remains: They were both distinguish
ed Writer'S On political economy as well
as great, truthful and philosephie his
torians. Hume said h6fa than d cen
tury ago:
I'VE find that in every kingdom into
which money begins to flow in greater
abundance than formerly, everything
takes a new face; labor and fhdestfy
gain life; the merchant becomes more
enterprising; the manufacturer be-
comes more. diligent and skillful; even
the farmer follows his ploW With great
er alacrity and attention. A nation
whose money decreases is, at times,
weaker and more miserable than an
other nation which possesses no more
money, but Is en- the increasing hand.
Falling prices and misery and destruc-
tion are inseparable companions! The
disasters Of the dark ages were caused
by decreasing money and falling prices.
With the increase of money, labor and
industry gather new life
Sir Archibald Alison had been en-
gagged for many years on history of
Europe, when III 1916 falling prices oc-
easioned by the spanish-American
wars, which cut eff the supply Of gold
and silver from Mexico and South
America, caused him to suspend his
historical labors, says the Silver
Knight-Watchinan: He then devoted
himself for thifty-fve years to the dis
cussion of the tariff, banking, and
every other economic device to Which
the genius Of man resorts to avert the
inevitable calamities which always fol-
low shrinking volume of the legal
tender money. In 1853 after the gold
from California and Australia had re-
lieved the universal distress which u
shrinking volume of money had pro-
dueed and substituted hope, prosperity
and progress for despair, want and mis-
cry, he renewed his historical iabCrs
to record the phenomena which the
gold from California and Australia pro-
duced. In the full glare of the Won
derful light which was shed upon
economic questions by such a change
Of monetary conditions as was produc-
ed by the new discoveries, Sir Archi-
bald Alison, as philosopher and his
torian' said
''The two greatest events that have
occurred in the history Of mankind
have been directly brought about by a
contraction and, on the other hand, an
expansion of the circulating medium Of
society.
'The fall Of the Roman Empire, SO
long asrribed, in ignorance, to slavery,
egotism. and moral corruption, was, In
reality, brought about by decline iii
the silver and gold mines Of Spain and
Greece. And, as If Providence had in
tended to reveal, in the clearest man
ner, the influence Of this mighty agent
on human affairs, the resurrection of
mankind from the ruin which those
causes had produced was owing to a
directly opposite set of agencies being
put In operation.
Columbus led the way in the career
OF renovation. When he spread his
sails across the Atlantic, he bore man
kind and It's fortunes in his bark. The
annual supply Of The precious metals
for the use Of the globe was tripled.
Before century had expired, the price
Of every species Of produce was quad
rupled. The weight of debt and taxes
insensibly wore off under the influence
of that prodigious increase.
'fIn the renovation of industry, the
relations of society were changed, the
weight of feudalisnl cast off, the rights
of man established. Among the many
concurrent causes which conspired to
bring about this mighty consummation,
the most important, though hitherto
the least observed. was the discovery
of Mexico and Peru
"If the circulating medium of the
globe had remained stationary, or de-
clining. as it was from 1916 to 1S49,
from the effects of the South American
revolution and English legislation, the
fate which crushed Rome
in ancient, and has all but crushed
Great Britain in modern, times, would
have been that OF The whole family of
mankind.
"All these evils have been entirely
obviated, and an opposite set of bless
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