Year: 1877




clared to be money, and money made
ont of silver, does not seem TO have
been clearly apprehended in the mon
etary legislation of The past few years.
Until recently silver has been money.
all there was of il in the world, ON,
part equally with another. Not all OF
it has been in the form of coin or bal
lion, but where free coinage has ex
listed every ounce of silver in exist
ence was entitled to be stamped as
coin and, whether it was SO stamped
or not, every ounce of pure silver had
the same value, whatever form it might
be in. The yearly product of the
mines, too, possessed the same value
as that already in the form of coin ;for
all that was necessary to do was to
get the Government certificate ol
weighttand fineness stamped upon it,
and it was money. A given number
of grains constituted unit of value
but the number of units, as conse-
quently the purchasing power of each
unit, was determined by the total
quantity of silver, and nothing else
Legislation simply fixe d the quantity
OF. pure metal in unit and fractional
part of unit, as dollar, a dime, a
franc, and left the quantity >of meta
or Number Of units there might be-
and consequently the value of each
to natural la,cs. This is the science OF
metallic money,whe left to self issue,
whether it be silver or gold. sf aro.


Hence, when legislators declare
what metal Or substance shall be mon
ey, and there stop, they do not under
take to regulate or determine its val
ue or purchasing power, either direct
ly or by regulating the q uantity or the
number of validating units there may
be, The case, however, is very differ
ent when legislators declare that a
given amount of money shall be made
out OF siiy er, or, in other words, tha
given part OF the silver in the world
shall be money and the rest moi. Then
the numerical quantity of units and
their validating or purchasing power,
instead of being left to natural laws,
are determined directly by the guam :
tity of money so made. That is, the
value is controlled as directly by leg


islation as though anything else were
used to make the money of.


When money, as in the case of our
greenback currency, is made of paie


its value is determined by volume, Or
the quantity printed; when made out
of silver, by the quantity coined. Leg
is.ation, in both cases, determines di
rectly the quantity that shall be made
printed or coined-from lime 10
time. and thereby, as directly, controls
the value. One year more notes may
be printed, and the next year a part
destroyed, as we are now doing; or
one year more coins may be struck,
and the next fewer, or part melted
down. In that case an ounce of silver
metal and an ounce of silver coin
would no longer necessarily possess
the same value-and they do not now
ANY more than q legal-tender note
and the paper il is made OF. In. short,
in the one case the metal silver is set
apart and declared to be money, and
there left. Its value, so long as the
condition remains, is beyond the in
fluence of legislation, aud is governed
by natural causes, or, as Cernuschi
says: Nature isu es it, In the other
case rather costly commodity is
chosen to make money out OF, and how
much of this commodity shall be used
up in making money, the legislator
from time to time, or the mint master,
decides. Hence it is plain that when
the principle that all silver is money
money the same as gold, in some de-
clared ratio-is departed from, there
is little or nothing gained in making
money out of silver. 1t might as well
be of bronze-better be of paper-a
much cheaper commodity. IL is but
sinconvertible currency in either case.


Again, as it does not matter what
size The notes are that are made legal
tender money, so if money is made of
silver metal, without declaring all sill
YER TO be money, it would not matter
how much OF how, little metal was put
in a coin, any more than it does with
our nickel pieces. The commodity
value of q five cent nickel. piece is
about seven eights of a cent. 1t would
make no difference with their money
value if the quantity of nickel was re-
duced one-haIf, procided the numJer
IF pieces were not increased. Ltis the
numerical quantity or number of uuits
in all cases on the one hand, and use
or requirement as money on the other.
that determines the value. IIencc the
'all-ilnporiant difference whether that
quantity (and hence the valuel be lett
to the free working of natural law or
whether it be lett To the caprice or in :
terest of party legislation.


This country is now feeling the ter
riblc consequences of the arbitrary al :
teration Of the value of money, and
before we are through with the cxper-
iment, it is hoped that the ail.impor-
tant lesson will be learned, that to al
ter the value OF money is to alter the
faith Of all contracts. A change in
the length of tine yardstick, or the
pound weight, or the bushel measure,
without provision for the adjustment
of contracts accordingly, would not
be tolerated anywhere. But change
in the value OF money alters al once
all units, whether of length, of weight