331 REPORT— 1891. 



the victims of the money-changers. Hence the cry was put 

 forth not long ago in New Zealand, with respect to the finan- 

 cial project of the late Mr. James Macandrew, and which 

 doubtless was repeated with parrotlike satisfaction by an un- 

 instructed public, "that Mr. Macandrew would put everything 

 right with a bale of paper and a printing press." 



I need hardly say at this stage of my paper that I advocate 

 what is called the quantity or numerary theory of the currency. 

 Countries without a Government strong enough or sufficieritly 

 intelligent to curb the avarice of those who set up what is 

 called a " standard of intrinsic value," whether of gold or silver 

 or both combined — bimetallism — as the only means by which 

 an over-issue of a }ion -intrinsic value currency can be pre- 

 vented, usually lose sight of the fact that an inadequate issue 

 of money may be as disastrous as an over-issue. This circum- 

 stance may not be so patent to the public, but writers on 

 finance agree that "the influence which the contraction or 

 expansion of the currency has upon prices and upon commerce 

 has been rarely suspected by those among whom the events 

 have taken place, who have usually been content to discover 

 other causes than this for prosperity or adversity." When a 

 financial crash comes the man with a sovereign in his hand 

 triumphantly laughs at his neighbour who possesses a note of 

 the collapsed bank ; but the man with the gold does not reflect 

 how many pounds he has been done out of in his business by 

 the fluctuations in the value of his property caused by the see- 

 sawing of the financial wire-pullers when they have alternately 

 expanded and contracted the currency for their profit and his 

 loss. It is asserted that Sparta, the first Eoman Republic, 

 Carthage, and every country while working under a numerary 

 system of the currency has been prosperous. A purely nume- 

 rary system is incompatible with a despotism, whether the 

 tyrant be a king or an oligarchy. The Roman Emperor Octa- 

 vius, it is said, wished to return to the numerary system of the 

 first republic ; but who was to control the emission of the cur- 

 rency ? " To intrust the Senate witli the tremendous powers 

 would be to deliver up the government to them. The power 

 would probably be abused. To regulate the currency himself 

 would expose him to the attack of every dissatisfied class." 

 No Government in Australasia has yet arisen that can aflix a 

 sign on every inoney-token sent into circulation equivalent to 

 the brand S.C. of the Roman Republic. The numerary brand 

 of the famed iron currency of Lycurgus was, it is believed, 

 the secret of its value. The famous William Pitt, like Augus- 

 tus, quailed before the capitalists of his age, who were the 

 masters of the Government debt. Mr. Pitt, with the Roman 

 Emperor, saw that a numerary paper emission was a system of 

 taxation equable in its incidence — the very thing the capitalists 



