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332 Aphorisms relative to Public Currency and Credit. [May i) 
uF. 
Gold and silver are among civilized 
nations the common medium or homo- 
geneous representative of commodities, 
6n account of their beauty, their dura= 
bility, their susceptibility of being coined, 
avd their intrinsic and absolute worth, 
arising from the labour expended in 
procuring them at the mincs, 
Paper, or arbitrary currency, as the re- 
sult of local or national convention, and 
as the creature of the will of man, is subs 
ject to the fluctuations of public confi- 
dence, and liable to the errors and mis- 
calculations which attend all human com- 
binations and arrangements. 
J 5. te 
The circulation of the precious metals, 
éffected by exchanging them. for com- 
modities, is natural and regular, while 
the circulation of artificial currency is 
hecessarily forced, unnatural and irre- 
gular. The one is in its origin the re- 
presentative of labour, and can only be 
obtained for property; while a paper, or 
arbitrary currency, is generally but the 
Tepresentative of credit, and may be 
obtained by artifice or intrigue. 
Capital is the basis of trade and social 
intercourse, when the currency consists 
of the precious metals; but credit, ad- 
dress, and intrigue, stand in the place 
of capital, when the national currency 
can be created, extended, and issued, at 
pleasure. 
7. - 
The nominal and relative value of all 
property will be in proportion to the 
amount of the curréncy employed in the 
circulation of that property; and this 
can only find its true level when the cur- 
rency itself, in all the stages of its circu- 
lation, is the special representative of 
transferred property. Increase the 
amount of the cufrency, and_all.com- 
modities will rise in nominal ¢alue; or 
thake it bear unequally on particular 
Kinds of property, and they will attain 
& factitious or unnatural price. 
. é. 
The novel mode of putting artificial 
currency into circulation, by discounting 
bills cr promissory totes, is objectionable 
and pernicious, because such bills and 
notes essentially represent nothing but 
the credit of the parties, may. be created 
at pleasure, and are often likely to re- 
present no real transaction of which come 
modities are the basis. 
‘about three millions, a hoard ,of eight 
9. - 
Such ‘novel modé of issuing the na- 
tional currency in exchange for notes 
and bills, affords an undue and dange- 
tous influence to spéculators, middle- 
men, and monopolists, who, to enhancé 
their gains, wili not hesitate to increasé 
their acceptances and indorsements, as 
the means of raising an indefinite capital, 
and thereby of indefinitely extending 
their speculations. 
10. 
The security of the public against spe- 
culators being the natural limits of their 
capital, it is evident, that if, under a 
system of paper currency, they are ena- 
bled to raise unbounded capitals by 
creating and discoanting bills and notes, 
they/will be enabled to accumulate in- 
definite stocks; and being under no 
obligation to sell for want of currency, 
the prices of such property can haye no 
limit besides the conscience and the 
prudence of the speculators. 
' 11. 
The hydra of monopoly will therefore 
have as many heads as there are manu- 
factories, or fountains, of paper currency ; 
a colossal head, representing the me- 
tropolitan manufactory, and five hundred 
other heads, generated by the small 
manufactories which spread over all 
parts of the empire, serve as the con- 
venient and necessary engines of mo- 
nopolists and speculators. ‘ 
12. 
As long as the paper currency is 
simply and solely the representative of 
specie, and can therefore be exchanged 
for specie at pleasure, no preference 
will exist in the public mind in fayour 
of specie; but, as soon as the re-conver- 
sion hecomes matter of difficulty, a pre- 
ference will be universally felt; and, asan 
affair of self-security, every one will 
hoard specie to guard his family against | 
the possible contingencies of a vague pa- | 
per currency. sah sa 
138. 
From this feeling arises the’ present 
scarcity of specie; the usual quantity 
having been about twenty-five million 
and the number of families, or inhabite 
houses, in the united kingdom, bein 
pounds to a house will account for its 
total disappearance, without referring 
to the temptations afforded to foreign 
traders, to speculating exporters, to subs 
sidies to foreign powers, and to humerous 
mal-practices of Jews and money dealers. 
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