20 



that the two elements may perform their appropriate functions 

 when required. Nothing impossible that they may be so ad- 

 justed as to be of equivalent value, and practically convertible 

 into each other. 



"Sec. IV. Two methods often proposed to afford an equable 

 currency considered. 



"Before proceeding to elucidate how the above arrangement 

 may be effected, I beg to notice two frequently proposed 

 schemes. 



"It is often proposed, that, to render money equable, it 

 should be constituted of authorised paper, entirely indepen- 

 dent of gold, and unconnected with it. That the gold should 

 have no artificial value, as money, given to it ; but that it 

 should be left merely as a commodity, as iron or lead, to find 

 its own market value. "We do not acquiesce in the common 

 objection to this arrangement, that the paper money would be 

 worthless, and of no defined value. Unquestionable authority 

 and a proper hunt would give it a defined and established value. 

 But if gold was left as a mere commodity, its value would be 

 very small. It would not be accumulated, but would depart 

 whither it retained its value as money. The nation that dis- 

 franchised it, however well it could carry on its own business 

 without it, would lose its vastly beneficial instrumentality 

 for foreign purposes. As a general scale among all nations, 

 it readily determines the respective value of their peculiar 

 commodities, and adjusts tneir exchanges. Besides, by ac- 

 cumulating it in times of abundance and prosperity, and 

 exchanging it in a time of dearth and scarcity (if a nation had 

 it arranged that it could exchange it without injury), it would 

 serve as a useful balance wheel, affording a desirable mediocrity 

 between want and voluptuousness. By tliis means, every 

 nation may be, in turn, a storehouse for the rest, to pour forth 

 its treasure wherever there is lack. As, in the absence of the 

 sun, we have the reflection of the moon. 



"It is true, a nation in want can only pay, ultimately, for 



