Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors][merged small]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[merged small][ocr errors]

THE LAWS OF MONEY.

THE first lump of gold or silver dug from the earth, as soon as its beauty and uses were displayed, became the object of universal admiration; each beholder sought to become its owner by exchanging therefor such articles of merchandise or property as he possessed, not necessary to his immediate wants.

This preference expressed nothing less than an instinct or sentiment common to mankind. In the earliest periods of which history or tradition gives any account, and which are far anterior to any possible concert or agreement between different peoples, the precious metals sustained precisely the relation to the nature and wants of man that they do to-day. They have had, through all time, the same importance in the arts. They always served as money in trade, and have always been esteemed the most desirable of all kinds of property to hold. Their owner has always been able to command whatever a people possessed, whether civilized or savage, among whom he might happen to be cast. No other articles of property have a similar power; for, with the exception of the precious metals, what is highly prized by one is often little valued by another; but in the desire for gold and silver, in this auri sacra fames, all nations and races, barbarous and civilized, Asiatic, African, European and American, meet on the same plane. To all they have an attractiveness equal in durability and intensity; and among all, they have rendered those who possessed them masters of the property and services of those who did not.1

The Book of Genesis, which is among the earliest records which have come down to us, and which describes the very infancy of the Hebrew race, speaks of the precious metals as articles of established use and value from the very beginning of their chronology; that is, from the creation of the world.

Articles for which such an universal preference was felt, based alike upon their beauty and utility, necessarily became, by virtue of such preference, the highest form of capital, the universal equivalent - MONEY; for the reason that every person possessed of any other kind of merchandise or property not required for his own present use or consumption, has always sought to exchange it therefor, from the certainty of being able, by its means, to obtain whatever he might wish to acquire. Of all objects those are most prized that minister in the highest degree to our sense of beauty. The value of gold and silver often sinks into insignificance compared with that of a diamond, or of some exquisite piece of painting or sculpture; but the latter values are exceptional and local, and have none of the attributes of universality and uniformity which gold and silver have maintained with equal intensity from the dawn of civilization to the present hour.1

The qualities, other than these named, which gold and silver possess which fit them to serve as money, are their durability; their divisibility without diminishing their value; the capacity of each piece, however minute, to receive an impress, denoting its quantity, and, consequently its value; and the uniformity of their cost and supply. No other articles whatever, for the want of similar qualities, are fitted to become money, no matter how great may be their relative or positive value.

It is the durability of the precious metals which has secured

"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it parted and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison; that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold: and the gold of that land is good."- Genesis, ii.: 10, 11, 12.

1 If a Greek, who lived 2,500 years ago, could revisit the world, the only articles which he could bring with him which would have the same value and significance they possessed in his lifetime, would be gold and silver, either in the form of coin, or of ornaments wrought from them. His coat of mail, his polished arms, the implements of his industries, his household goods, whatever constituted his wealth, or ministered to his comforts or his tastes, all, with the exception of his gold and silver, would have long since been mingled in common dust. His language might be wholly unintelligible, but with the coins in his pocket, still retaining their wonderful beauty of design and workmanship, which might have been paid out to him directly from the mint, and with which he might have traded and travelled, in the infancy of Greece, - he could start upon a tour around the world, with a certainty that they would be received without question, at a value determined by their cost, at every public house, caravansary, railroad and steamboat office, and supply every want in his long journey of 25,000 miles.

to them no small part of the esteem in which they have always been held. They resist all action of the elements, and are absolutely indestructible when at rest. As the demand for them has always existed with equal uniformity and force, their durability fits them to become, in a preeminent manner, reserves in which the earnings and means of every member of society, no matter how humble, can be treasured up for all future time. Possessing them, he is at once raised above the possibility of want; and by the ease with which they can be transported or concealed, is enabled to secure a degree of independence and immunity from want, without which, in many countries, life itself might become wholly intolerable.1

It is in overlooking the original and universal attractiveness which the precious metals have for the race that nearly all the errors in monetary science have arisen. "Gold and silver," it is urged, "cannot feed, clothe, or shelter us; they cannot even help in any way to sustain life. How idle, then, to claim a greater value for them than for articles which can!" There is no doubt that in extreme cases a person would part with untold gold for a morsel of bread, a cup of water, or a plank to save from drowning; but all such examples are exceptions, not rules. When famine or want threatens, or when political or social disturbances make men distrustful of the future, their

1 The precious metals possessed, in many respects, a far greater importance in ancient than in modern times, and among Eastern than Western nations. So long as no considerable progress was made in the arts, they necessarily served as the materials with which were fabricated, in a great measure, articles of ornament or luxury. The Eastern races have never been able, like the Western, to oppose an effectual resistance to the tyranny and exaction of their rulers; and most pitiable would have been their condition had there not been some form of property, the possession of which could be effectually concealed, its value in the mean time remaining unimpaired. Their whole history has been one of oppression on one side and of arts to foil it on the other. "The Rajahs," says Mr. Scrafton, in his tract upon the government of Hindostan, "never allow their subjects to rise above mediocrity. The Mohammedan governors look upon the growing riches of their subjects as a boy on a bird's nest; they eye their progress with impatience, and come with a spoiler's hand and ravish the fruits of their labors. To counteract this, the Gentoos bury their money under ground; and often with such secrecy as not to trust even their own children with the knowledge of it; and it is amazing what they will suffer rather than betray it. Their tyrants use all manner of corporal punishments, but that often fails; for with a resentment prevailing over the love of life, they frequently rip up their bowels, or poison themselves, and carry their secret to the grave. The sums lost in this manner in some measure account why the silver in India does not appear to increase, though there are such quantities continually coming into it and none going out."

« PreviousContinue »