cial era, and we shall only stop when the present absurd system is abolished. As has been before stated, the quantity of money in existence is not of the least consequence, as no profit is derived from it as such beyond the saving of labor in the exchange of other commodities; therefore, when enough of the metals have been obtained to allow of the coins being made of convenient size, no more is required than an increase proportionate to the increase of other capital-all beyond is an unnecessary waste of capital and labor, and must fall as a tax upon the community producing it. Therefore, if we continue our present monetary system we must be content, in spite of our protective tariff, or any we can erect, finally to become a mere agricultural power. We have the example of Spain to warn us of our fate, and yet she had no banking system to more than double the evil, and accelerate her fall.

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Having now exposed the evils of the monetary system we should recommend, preparatory to an entire change, that all notes of a less denomination than twenty-five dollars be withdrawn from circulation as early as convenient. But to make our ideas practicable, it will be necessary that we should develop some other system of money by which the evils of the present can be obviated. In illustration, we propose to quote a short agraph from Raguet on "Currency and Banking," (chapter on the impolicy of adhering to our present mint proportions between gold and silver.) He says:-"Let the standard of gold coin be restored to its former high grade, corresponding with those of Great Britain, Portugal, and Brazilthat is eleven parts of pure gold and one part of alloy; and let there be no coins struck at the mint but ounces, half-ounces, and quarter-ounces, without any fixed legal proportions to silver, but left to find their way into circulation at their fair market equivalency, as gold coins do in France and other countries of Europe. By having coins of familiar and well-known weights, the people would form right conceptions of the true nature of money, and as the bullion dealers and brokers in the cities would quote the prices of ounces of gold as they do of sovereigns, they would be at all times current at their market value, and could never be driven from the country by our own legislation, nor that of other States."

There is much truth in the above quotation, and much more than appears upon the surface. The common idea which the public have of money is, that its value is fixed and immovable, and that it is only the price and value of other commodities that vary. But nothing can be more fallacious. No law nor regulation can affix the price or value of any commodity, for it will vary according to the circumstances of its production. Gold and silver are continually varying in value towards each other, which makes it imposible to keep a double standard correct for any length of time. If the federal government had adopted the policy recommended by Mr. Raguet at the time, gold would now have been sold at so many dollars and cents per ounce, and its price paid in other commodities; or it might have been sold in like manner in liquidation of debts which had been contracted according to the common standard, (the silver dollar,) but it would have made no difference in the case if a silver dollar had never existed; it would have been paid and received just in the same manner, being measured like other commodities, according to the comparative amount of labor required to produce it. Thus, there is no necessity for a fixed price of the metals-it is a clumsy expedient, which has grown out of ignorance, and has caused more expense and confusion in society than

any other commercial regulation, and is at the foundation of the evils of the currency.

If the law relating to the amount of gold and silver contained in a dollar were repealed, the dollar would become a mere nominal unit instead of a silver one-a decimal scale to measure the relative amount of labor in each commodity, and gold and silver among the rest. Gold and silver would still continue, as heretofore, to be the medium of exchange, but would be sold by weight instead of by tale as at present. Commercial transactions would then cease to have reference to a certain weight of the precious metals, and would be paid in dollars' worths, according to their price in the market. It would then be of no consequence to society what amount of gold and silver might be produced, it would make no difference to previous engagements nor outstanding debts. In fact, it would be a matter about which society would cease to be interested, and we should not even take the trouble to read the newspaper accounts of the production of gold, because it would fluctuate less than any other commodity, and therefore would be of less interest to the community. And as there would be then no premium upon its production over that of any other commodity, we should obtain no more gold from California than what would furnish the necessary amount of increase according to the increase of other capital, and if any were exported, it must be paid for by the importation of some other commodity.

We should, therefore, immediately begin to save the expense of goldgetting in California beyond the amount specified, because it would not be profitable to produce it beyond that ratio. All that would be necessary to effect this would be the mere rescinding of the law relating to the amount of gold and silver to be contained in a dollar, and would also prevent the further increase of bank paper. After the withdrawal of the bank paper under the denomination of twenty-five dollars, and due notice being given of the time when the law would become operative, there would not be much danger incurred by the alteration; of course, not so much danger as in the continuance of the system, which some time or other must be altered. By this means the bankers would be forced to give up a portion of their ill-gotten wealth, and trade and Commerce would begin to flow in a natural channel. Manufactures would flourish, and whatever facilities of production the country possessed would be put in the best possible position, and great prosperity would ensue. . The manner in which this reform should be achieved ought to be gradual. Let the various denominations of notes specified be withdrawn from circulation within three years after a certain date, when the other law relating to gold and silver, to be coined in ounces, half-ounces, &c., should come into operation. It is presumed that no great inconvenience would take place from the withdrawal of the small notes, as we are in the habit of obtaining so much gold from California, and it would only have to be kept at home instead of its being forced abroad as at present.

But after this is achieved, still another reform would be necessary to perfect the currency, and to place it upon a permanent and scientific basis. All experience shows, and it will not be denied by any one acquainted with the subject, that a certain proportion of paper to specie is necessary, and will circulate without depreciation, and this circumstance ought to be taken advantage of for the public benefit, and not be allowed to be abused, and the profits pocketed by private individuals. We propose, then, that in

two years after the withdrawal of the small notes from circulation, that the remaining notes be withdrawn, and let them be replaced in the meantime by seventy-five or one hundred millions of treasury notes of like denominations, payable and receivable for all federal dues and taxes. These notes would circulate throughout the Union, not only without discount, but would probably rise to a small premium, as they could be used to liquidate balances without the intervention of bank drafts, and thereby save much inconvenience and expense.

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No doubt great objections will be raised about inconvertible paper, that is sheer nonsense at this time of day, as the bank paper, if allowed to remain in circulation under the circumstances, would be much more inconvertible practically than the government paper could be. As we have said all paper money is practically inconvertible, and there is no reason why it should be otherwise, if its quantity be adjusted so as to leave a sufficient margin of coin to cover any demand for the precious metals which may arise from the variableness of the seasons, or of the falling off of any particular crop, as no other causes for such demand would remain, nor could arise, under such a system of currency.

The evil which the framers of the Constitution ought to have guarded against was depreciation, and that was what they intended, no one doubts; and therefore the present currency is highly unconstitutional-quite as much so, practically, as making anything but gold and silver a legal tender for debts. The latter is of no consequence, providing the instrument employed is for the interest of all, and has a real value for the time being. Of course the greatest caution ought to be observed in issuing the government paper money. It should be done by act of Congress, and no discretionary power should be allowed to exist in any other body. By this means its quantity could be regulated and increased to any desirable extent without danger of abuse, and the expense of any unnecessary increase of the metals avoided.

It seems hardly possible to suppose that any material opposition can be made to such an important and necessary reform, except from interested motives. But if this should be the case, or the movement in the several States should only be partially successful, the federal legislature might still proceed without any fear of doing half as much mischief, or injury to the community, as has been done by the banks in any single panic they have produced since their inception up to the present time; or perhaps without doing any perceptible injury to any legitimate interest. In the case supposed, the treasury notes might be paid out as circumstances required, and if the currency became for a short time redundent, and that is nothing new, it would not last long, as the weakest must go to the wall. The government paper being required to pay federal dues, it would have an effectual demand, which the bank paper would lack, and therefore must depreciate, and in consequence return to the banks. Several other advantages would also accrue to the community, besides those enumerated, from the adoption of this truly economical currency. The balances of foreign exchange would be liquidated with less trouble and calculation; industry would become more productive from the constant steadiness of employment, and labor would obtain its due reward-besides the American people would have the honor of being first to adopt the system of currency which must finally become universal. The protectionist may advocate this reform as the only true protectionist policy.

R. 8.

Art. III.-COMMERCE AND THE MERCHANT.*

COMMERCE, WHAT IT 18-NATURAL TO MAN-DIVERSITY OF EMPLOYMENT-BIBLICAL COMMERCEACQUISITION AN INSTINCT FROM DIVINITY-WHAT THE THIRST FOR GOLD HAS ACCOMPLISHED— COMMERCE BRINGS WEALTH AND POWER-A COMMERCIAL PEOPLE-AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE BENEFICENCE OF COMMERCE THE HIGHER DUTIES OF THE MERCHANT-HIS EXALTED STATION-IN BUSINESS HE MUST COMBINE WISDOM AND INNOCENCE-THE MERCHANT OBEYS THE LAWS OF HIS COUNTRY-THE MERCHANT SHOULD BE RAPID IN DECISION AND ACTION, ETC.

COMMERCE, perhaps, by derivation, simply means exchange. Hence, Milton speaks of "looks commercing with the skies." It is more usually taken to mean an exchange of movable articles, and implies mutual benefit to the actors. Money, as the common representative of value, is its ordinary medium, though, with barbarous nations, the exchange is ordinarily direct, or barter. It is foreign or domestic. Trade is usually employed with the same meaning, though it is also applicable to the home or retail dealings of the shop-keeper. Commerce, or trade in its more extensive use, supposes travel, a conveyance of merchandise or the subject of exchange, and the place of exchange is the market.

A disposition to Commerce is implanted in humanity; and, like a thirst for ornament, distinguishes men from brutes. Man possesses, indeed, far nobler characteristics, but, in an age when philosophers gravely seek to show that men are not an immediate creation of the divinity, but a slowlyevolved improvement of the brute, it may be well to allude to one of the most remarkable of the many minor traits of our nature which is not inherent in any other of God's terrestrial creatures. It is common to all the varieties of our race. I am not aware of any tribe, however imbruted, from the root-digger of the Rocky Mountains to the men of the interior of Africa, who have, or are supposed to have, tails three inches long, who have not a propensity to exchange or trade.

Commerce, like war, springs from a desire of acquisition; but, unlike war, it is consonant with the divine law of love. Like mercy, it is "twice blessed. It blesseth him that gives and him that takes." It gives birth to invention, stimulates production, entices laggards to labor, and confirms halting industry. Man finds happiness in labor, and he labors to produce materials for the acquisition, by exchange, of things which he desires, but which nature denies him, and he cannot produce. Imagine, if you can, a world whose people do not interchange goods with each other. Each man would be for himself, and his hand would be against every other man. There indeed would man be identical with the brute-isolated, unintelligent, and predacious. Such a condition of humanity is impossible.

Indeed, from the earliest times, men have traded with each other. I love to recur to the most ancient and holiest of all books for examples of the immediate development of this instinct of humanity. It is so lucid, so perfectly free from the monstrous fictions and palpable absurdities which disgrace the earliest productions of profane history, and so consistent with scientific truth; and then its historic truth is so corroborated by the internal evidences of its divine origin, its God is so God-like, its ethics are so

• The following article was delivered as an address before the Mercantile College of Buffalo by the Hon. GEORGE W. CLINTON. We have taken the liberty to omit the introductory paragraphs, which are of a local character.-Ed. Mer. Mag.

divine, so perfect, so expansive, adapted to and covering man in every age, in every clime, whatever his pursuits or intellectual attainments-that I cannot but feel that there, and there only, is embalmed the true history of

our race.

In Paradise, Adam dressed the garden and subsisted on its fruits. Light was his labor, if it were aught beyond mere exercise; but when he was driven forth, it was to "till the ground from which he was taken;" and he was condemned "in the sweat of his face to eat bread." Diversity of employment was manifested so soon as the two first born of Eve began to toil. "Abel was a keeper of sheep; but Cain was a tiller of the ground;" and with them, probably, commenced the interchange of the fruits of labor. But these primitive pursuits were soon diversified; and in the seventh generation from Adam, Jabal "was the father of such as dwell in tents and have cattle;" Jubal "was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ;" and Tubalcain was "an instructor in every artificer in brass and iron."

Here, in this early age of the world, we have proof that the earth was tenanted by the stationary cultivator of the soil, by the shepherd, by the wandering dweller in tents, whose wealth was in his herds, by the smith, who worked in brass and in iron, by men who could construct, and by men who could draw music from the harp and from the organ. Such a diversity of employments could exist only in a trading world. The construction of the ark before, and of the Tower of Babel after, the deluge, are alike cogent proofs of the existence of a systematic division of labor, and of the exchange of its products. Job declares of wisdom, "it cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, nor the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it; and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold."

But Job lived long before Abraham, and his allusions to the gold of Ophir would seem to favor the idea that, even in his day, caravans traversed, for the purposes of trade, the deserts of Eastern Asia to its southern coast. If Ophir was, as some have supposed, the island of Ceylon, then navigation had become already an aid to Commerce. In the history of Joseph we have a direct proof of a land trade carried on through the slow, unwearying ships of the desert, by that indomitable race which sprang from Hagar. Joseph was drawn forth from the pit into which his brothers had cast him, and was sold for twenty pieces of silver to a company of Ishmaelites, who "came from Gilead with their camels, bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt;" and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, who had brought him down. to Egypt."

I cannot comprehend the philosophy which pronounces money the root of all evil. The love of acquisition is an instinct implanted by divinity, and though it may be perverted, is the animating principle of the world. It is the great incentive to industry, to Commerce, and to intercourse. Truly did the poet designate it as "auri sacra fames." The Creator fosters it by the differences of climate which he has impressed upon the earth, and by scattering the infinite variety of goods which all men crave the wide world through. May we not reverently say that his penal visitations-war, pestilence, and famine-have in them an element of mercy,