COMMERCE. 165 



ternal revenue taxes, and for a few other purposes, but are 

 treated as merchandise, and are quoted in the market reports 

 at a discount. Some over-wise people have told us that the 

 State has been greatly injured by adherence to a gold curren- 

 cy, and their chief reason is that men are unwilling to move 

 from the Eastern States to California if they must give $10,- 

 000 of their money for $9,000 or $8,500 of ours. This would 

 imply that California should sacrifice ten or fifteen per cent, of 

 her property as a condition of exchanging a perfectly safe and 

 stable currency for unsafe and unstable greenbacks. Asser- 

 tions have been made that the gold standard has been retained 

 here because of the influence of a small ring of capitalists in 

 San Francisco, but such a statement needs no refutation among 

 men familiar with business. Every contract is made inde- 

 pendently, and the currency is usually gold, because every- 

 body finds it preferable. 



The coin consists chiefly of the double-eagle, or piece of 

 $20. The coinage of the San Francisco Mint, in 1872, was 

 $16,380,000, including $15,600,000 in double-eagles; $300,- 

 000 in eagles, half-eagles, and quarter-eagles ; &29,000 in half- 

 dollars, $26,000 in quarter-dollars, $19,000 in dimes, and $3,- 

 600 in half-dimes. These figures may be accepted as fair an- 

 nual averages. The silver coinage is only two per cent, of 

 the whole sum, and the amount of half dollars, the largest 

 silver coin in common use, is more than three times as great 

 as that of all the smaller coins together ; while the average of 

 double-eagles is fifty times greater than that of all the smaller 

 gold pieces. For payments of twenty dollars, or more, the 

 double-eagles are generally used. No copper or nickel money 

 is coined or current, and half-dimes, the smallest coins, are 

 not very common. 



123. Wealth of the State. According to the State as- 

 sessment, which purports to be made at the cash value, the tax- 

 able property in the State amounted, in 1873, to $527,000,000, 

 including $212,000,000 in San Francisco, $25,000,000 in Ala- 



