The independent., 1903-06-18
All Rights Reserved.
BOOK 2.-Chapter vi.


Coin and commodities are held up
as If they were the antithesis OF eacn
other; whereas coin is itself simply 4
commodity. Coin is merely one ar
ticle of wealth, made such by statutes
comforting upon it the power to BEN
eficially serve man. What its value
may be depends upon the urgency OF
mems needs and the strenuousness
with which they struggle for its ex-
elusive possession; for the more
strenuous the struggle, the more In
tense is the force of demand and the
greater is its value. But this cannot
be shown in change of its price. :
which Is fixed and stamped upon It,
and the increased intensity of the
force of demand for it manifests itself
in the greater sacrifices of services or
wealth men must make to obtain it's
possession. This results in lowering
the prices" of all other things that
have not their prices stamped upoa
them and in putting at discount
such things as have their prices
stamped upon them, but which arc
not armed with the power of tender.
The relation of coin to other COM
modities fluctuates with the varying
degrees of intensity of the demand for
each relatively; but the value of coin
in it's own sphere as relating to tax
leyies and Judgments, remains always
the same Hence, the greater the sup
ply accessible, the less the sacrifice
of service or wealth required to OBJ
tain it.
The absurdity of saying that goods
are demand for coin," and 'tcoin is
demand for goods" becomes more
clear when it is thus seen that it in
wolves the proposition that "coin is
demand and that goods are de-
mand.'
Mill seems to have labored under
the delusion that coin is endowed witt,
some magical power, and was blind to
the fact that in it's relations to ex-
changes it differs in no respect from
any other commodity.
He says that decrease of value &C.
companying increase of quantity, and
increase of value accompanying de
crease of quantity, sis property pc
culiar to" coin. Now, every one
knows that the same rule, with the
limitations stated by him, applies to
every commodity.
Coin is not demand but the urgent
and universal need of men to obtain
possession of 1t, to save themselves
| from ruin at the h-lds of the tax col
lector and the sheriff, drives them to
put forth strenuous efforts and to sac.
| l,.;E To nhf foiy
session of it, as the sole means of
deliverance from tax levies and judg-
ments; and the struggle thus made
| intense, produces an intense force of
| demand for the coin, which alone of
all commodities has been given the
Lower of tender" against those tax
| levies and judgments. This is what
creates the force of demand for coin;
and it is that force of demand which
| produces value, in the sense employed
| by Mill
1t is struggling men contending for
dominion over things, which always
and everywhere produces the force of
demand, without which there is no
value"
The demand for flour is not pro-
duced because grocers deal in it as
means of making prot; but grocers
deal in it because men struggling tn
obtain it, to supply an imperious hui
| man need, create demand for it. No
more is the force of demand for coin
| produced by its being received so free
ly in exchange for other commodities
On the contrary, it is freely accepted
in exchange for other commodities
because of the intensity of the force
of demand for it, 2rising out of the
strenuous and universal struggle of
men against each other to obtain pos
| session of it, in order to have it per-
form for them an urgently needed
service which nothing else on earth
his power to perform, namely, to sat
! isfy tax levies and judgments.
The total absence of any knowledge
of the nature of value is manifest in
the quotations made and by Mills
further statement that the value of a
thing is what it will exchange for" A
cow for example might exchange with
equal facility for hog or gold ca
gle. Then its value, upon his theory,
would be hog in the one case and
an eagle in the other. Hence, it fol-