one will take it off his hands at some price, to be paid in money. He may lose by holding; but he might incur a greater loss by any attempt to sell or exchange it for merchandise other than that which he wished to secure or consume, as he would be in the same dilemma in the latter case as in the former. Such an exchange, if made at all, would have to be at the estimated value of his merchandise in money, leaving him as far from a sale for cash as before the exchange was made.

If without the precious metals there could be no exchanges but in kind, still less could there be division of labor, upon which every thing deserving the name of wealth is based, and without which only the rudest fabrics can be produced. Division of labor is possible only where the laborer or workman can be paid in some article which he may not produce, but by means of which he can by direct exchange, reach any other article he may wish to acquire. If it were possible to exchange a skin for a quarter of venison, it is not possible that a person who polishes and fits the main-spring of a watch should have that which, in itself, would be received in payment for food and shelter.

All sales of merchandise, therefore, before commerce could assume any considerable dimensions, were, from the very nature of things, made payable in the precious metals. For the same reason, all contracts arising from such sales, or for labor or service, to be executed presently or in the future, were held to be payable in them, whether or not they contained such provision, not only for the purpose of securing to the party to be paid that by which he could reach by direct exchange any other article of property, but for the purpose of defining the extent of liability to be incurred on either side. If a person were to receive 1,000 bushels of wheat at the expiration of ten years, he could form no idea of what it would realize to him till it was received and sold for coin. If he were to receive $1,000 in coin in ten years, he would know its value as well when the contract was made as when it was to be executed. Its value would be the same, or very nearly the same, at either period. The wheat might not have one-half, or it might have double, the value when it was to be paid, that it had when the contract for its payment was made. Neither buyer nor seller, therefore, could with any safety enter, nor would either as a rule, enter

into contracts not presently to mature, that were not to be discharged in coin.

As the precious metals are always in demand at the cost of their production, their value is ABSOLUTE; depending upon one condition,- cost. That of all other articles is relative, depending upon two conditions, -demand and cost. From absence of demand, their value, either in the precious metals or in other articles, may not equal one-half their cost. In all transactions the former pass at their absolute value. As all other articles must take the form of the precious metals, or of that which possesses a value equivalent thereto, before they can be made available to their owners; and must be accepted in exchange, at their absolute value in gold and silver, the latter must be the STANDARD of value by which that of all other articles is measured. As they are money by virtue of their value, they are standards of value by virtue of the same attribute. When they pass as money, the standard, as well as the instrument of exchange, passes in the same article, by the same act. The thing itself, unlike a foot-rule or pound weight, is the standard, the measure of value. Other measures, those of extent or quantity, do not pass in the sale of that which they measure. The value of such measures has no relation whatever to that of the articles measured. But money, the medium of exchange,1 and money the measure or standard of value, are identical things. The words that express them are, in the strictest sense, synonymous terms.

From what has preceded, the transcendent importance of the precious metals in the development and progress of society will be at once appreciated. They are the instruments, and the only ones, by virtue of their being the highest form of capital, the universal equivalents, which render possible the very first step towards a higher life. They are the foundation. upon which rests the vast superstructure of civilized society.

1 The term," medium of exchange," is one of recent origin, growing out of the use of paper money, from which the idea of value has become in great measure dissociated. So long as exchanges were effected in kind, one article of consumption being exchanged for another, —each were equally "media of exchange." The term, as ordinarily used, is one of the great stumbling blocks in the way of a proper elucidation or understanding of the subject of money. It is one of Bacon's "Idols of the Market."

Without them there could have been no exchanges, no wealth, no government, no institutions, no history; nothing but the eternal iteration of savage or barbarous existence. The moment they are disused, society is without any adequate standard by which the value of its industries can be measured. Without them, utter chaos would at once take the place of the order which now conducts to prosperous ends the industry of every laborer, — whether he be a cotton-spinner in England, a farmer raising wheat on the banks of the Missouri, a cultivator of tea in China, a grower of rice on the banks of the Ganges or the Nile, or of sugar in Brazil, — and awards to each an exact compensation, measured by a common standard, for the value of his contribution to the general stock from which all are fed and sustained. With them, a people, consuming the products of another, have no need to inquire what those of their own industries will bring in the countries from which their imports are to be made, but only what their own products are worth in the precious metals, at their own doors. By their means, at the close of each day, the most unlettered, equally with the most intelligent and learned, can measure exactly the value of his industries, and apply the necessary corrective, should it be found that they had not been properly directed or sufficiently remunerative. As without such standards there could be neither industry, wealth, nor civilization, the inference is irresistible that the universal demand for the precious metals at their cost, and the uniformity of their supply, are, equally with moral laws, part of God's providence with man.

As gold and silver are capital as well as money, and are always in demand to serve as the basis of reproduction, either by their conversion into forms other than that of coin, or in exchange for food, implements, and the like, every one possessed of them, where governments are sufficiently strong to enforce the fulfilment of contracts, will seek to loan whatever he may have in excess of his own immediate wants, for the income they will yield. The opportunity for loaning them at usury does not depend, as is too often supposed, upon the necessities of governments or individuals for capital for their ordinary expenditures, but upon the uses to which they can be profitably applied. The greater the progress made in knowledge, and in the arts and sciences; the more perfect

the means of production and distribution, the greater must be the disproportion of capital to the demand that must exist for it; the more powerful the motives to industry and toil, and the higher the rates of interest which borrowers can afford to pay. From the material progress that has been made within the last fifty years, a significance and value have been given to capital never before known. That it must steadily increase in importance rests upon the fact that God is Infinite and man finite. The mission of man is to unfold His laws, and render them the instruments in promoting his own welfare. The greater his progress, the wider the field spread out before him. Every step he takes becomes an incentive, and an aid to the next. The more he achieves in any direction, the stronger the motive and the greater the power for new acquisitions. Every new discovery is a fresh demand for capital. I need only refer to the vast sums now called for, for the purpose of utilizing the discoveries which the present generation has made in electricity, and the almost infinite sums yet required for the full development of that mighty force upon which seem to rest all the phenomena of the universe.

When loans of the precious metals could be safely made at usury, a principle or element of almost infinite value and power was introduced into human affairs. With gold and silver to serve as the instruments of exchange, the means of acquisition were for the first time given to the race. By loans of them, with interest payable in kind, its acquisitions could be treasured up, and be made to bear fruit for all coming time. Until interest could be obtained for their use, every person retained whatever he acquired, in his possession, until forced by his necessities to part with them. So soon as they could be safely loaned, no one would keep the possession of an amount greater than that required for his immediate wants. Thenceforth the whole face of society was changed. Order and good government were the conditions necessary to induce the possessors of capital to loan it, for they were the only conditions under which the borrowers could prosecute their industries in a manner which would enable them to repay their loans. Order and good government, consequently, have in modern times been the work of the industrial and commercial classes. The moral well-being of mankind rests upon its material well-being. In the promotion of both, the precious metals, with loans of

them at usury, stand forth as the prime and paramount factors.

With loans of the precious metals at interest, their possessor could not only make provision for himself, and for his family after his decease, but he could found institutions for the culture of learning, of art, of science, or for the support of some charity, provisions that should suffer no abatement, but secure the same results one hundred or one thousand years after his death, as during his lifetime and under his own supervision. In other words, he could invest himself, as it were, with the attributes of immortality. He could make no such provisions by dedicating thereto great stores of food and clothing. All such articles are speedily perishable, so that with an abundance of both, unless exchanged for gold and silver, their possessor might presently come to want. No permanent foundation, therefore, can be made, resting upon such kinds of property. Should such an attempt be made, no one could ever be found who would receive them on loans, agreeing to pay for their use interest in kind, to pay, for example, six bushels of wheat, annually, for a loan of one hundred bushels. He would not run the risk of the fluctuations in its value; or he might wish to change his residence to countries or districts, from which the cost of sending wheat to the place of payment might exceed many times its value. It is impossible, therefore, that there should be any other final solvents of transactions but the precious metals, while human nature is what it is. No commercial people ever have adopted, nor will they ever voluntarily adopt, standards of value other than those Providentially appointed. If other standards are ever used, it is only because governments interpose to set aside natural laws. But all such attempts prove in the end utterly futile; for no government can long compel the people to act in direct violation of their highest interests. However great the departure, the natural standards will always be returned to; but often, unfortunately, not until both government and people are involved in common ruin. •

As soon as any considerable progress had been made in commerce and trade, contracts to pay money would be authenticated by convenient and proper instruments. The transfer of these would operate to transfer that which they represented. With the progress of social order, some of these instruments, for