THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



325 



alteralions ot'ilie dei|;ree ofdeprcciatioii, operaliriix 

 to repeat the first and ireiieral ill eliecl on ihe va- 

 lue of labor and profiis at every new llucluation, 

 whether in risinij or lallinir. 



Let us suppose the average rale ol' depreciation 

 of t)ank paper, durinif a stoppage ol" paymeiils, 

 to be 10 per cent, below gold and silver. Belbre 

 the suspension of payments was announced, or 

 belbre the " run" upon the banks had commen- 

 ced, of course there could have been but little 

 specie in circulation ; lor our supposition was 

 ol' a case where banks had issued as much paper 

 as circulation could absorb while bank notes re- 

 mained payable in specie on demand. As soon 

 as the sufc-pen.^ion is declared, ol' course all the 

 little sjiecie belbre in circulation disappears, and 

 the country is without any currency whatever, 

 except the irredeemable, discredited, and depre- 

 ciated bank notes, with which circulation is filled. 

 It is then not a matter of choice whether such 

 money shall be received and paid, and thus con- 

 tinue current or not. There is 7io other money — 

 and of course every body is obliired to use it as 

 freely as belbre ; and such would be the case even 

 if the depreciation were five limes as grreat. Not 

 only are individuals thus compelled to take the 

 (le()r£ciated paper, but even the government ; lor 

 the government, whose business it is to provide or 

 indicate a currency, had left this important attri- 

 bute of sovereignty to be usurped by the banks, 

 and therefore llie government is in the reniarka- 

 ble and most, feeble and helpless condition, ot 

 beinsx without any solid, proper, or legal currency 

 whatever. Legislation perhaps has not yet cheat- 

 ed all creditors, as regularly afterwards follows 

 bank suspent^ions in Virginia, by making the depre- 

 ciated paper money virtually a legal tender — and 

 thus violating the constitution of government, as 

 well as priva(e rights. But even m advance of 

 this |)olicy, (of "relief laws," " slay laws," &c.,) 

 public vpiniun alone is powerful enough to Ibrbid 

 any creditor exacting his debts in specie, or other- 

 wise charging to the debtor the amount o!' actual 

 depreciation. Then, every man to whom money 

 IS owing tor his labor, or the previous sale of his 

 property, is paid actually but 90 dollars for every 

 100 due to him ; and thus, at the first dash, every 

 debt due throughout the whole country is taxed 

 and reduced 10 per cent. ; and that amount is 

 transferred from the possession of the creditor 

 class, to the debtor class. This amount of pro- 

 perty thus forcibly translerred, would be an enor- 

 iiious public evil, (independent of its wrongful- 

 ness,) greater than all possible public benefits 

 previously derived from the banking systerp. 

 But this is not all. Prices in general, so far as 

 they are matter of mutual agreement, it is true, 

 will in time be accommodated to the new depre- 

 ciated value of the currency. But this cannot 

 be done at once ; and while gradually reaching 

 that point, the benefits of the changes will always 

 fall to the well-informed and cunning traders or 

 stock-jobbers, and money brokers, and the losses 

 will fall on those who earn their living by selling 

 their labor, or the products of their labor. But 

 very many kinds of prices cannot be changed, 

 even gradually, from the nominal to the real 

 value of the depreciated currency. All who 

 live on fixed salaries, or receive prices fixed by 

 previous contract, must continue to lose one- 

 ienth of their income, for the profit (to the 



banks) of the fraud of sioppirii; payments. And 

 indeed many other prict-s, especially of various 

 kinds of labor, are so fixed by custom,- though not 

 by law, as to be very slow in changing to suit 

 the new value of money, and of course are so 

 taxed in proportion to the slowness of their 

 change. The prices of the work of bricklayers and 

 plasterers, of liouse-painiers and of many others, 

 are at certain rales according to the precise 

 measurement of liie work executed. Now, to 

 make prices lair in these cases, they should rise 

 iO per cent, in the next hour after the baidt [)aper 

 and only currency of the country had sunk in 

 value 10 per cent. Yet all these mechanics, 

 and also those who employ then), know well that 

 no such sudden and proportional rise of prices Ibr 

 their labor would take place. And in lime, all 

 other prices which are not fixed, rise in propor- 

 tion to the depreciation of money; and alter nnl- 

 lions of value being translerred from the rightful 

 owners to other persons in making the change, 

 it might be, if the rale of depreciation were 

 really fixed and steady, that prices would be 

 again fairly rated upon labor and property, by 

 every thing being charged 10 per cent, higher 

 than at the former specie prices. But, in prac- 

 tical operation, belbre this new and lair gradua- 

 tion could be reached, the ground would have 

 been again shifted by a new lluctuat ion ol price, and 

 a different rate of depreciation of the currency ; 

 and every fluctuation, whether by increasing or 

 decreasing the previous depreciation, would cause 

 more evil than belbre, l)y again disordering 

 prices, and transferring property wrongfully ; and 

 It should be observed that the iransliirs of value 

 would not be directed by mere chance, but would 

 generally be from the most ignorant to the most 

 arllul ; and that the greatest gainers by this game 

 ol" speculation would be the same banking and 

 stock-jobbing class, by whose agency and Ibr 

 whose benefit the first great fraud and the great 

 consequent evils were produced. During a state 

 of fluctuating depreciation of currency, the prices 

 ol" labor and of property are continually pursuing 

 the steps of depreciation, but are always liir be- 

 hind, and never can overtake them. 



But the increase of nominal prices of property 

 does not stop at the proper mark required by a 

 fixed and permanent depreciation of n)oney; and 

 this is another great evil. The great mass of the 

 community will never be able at first to under- 

 stand the true cause of the rise of nominal 

 prices : and what is in truth merely, depreciation of 

 money, is believed to be an increased and still in- 

 creasing value of land and other property, and 

 even of general and growing prospeiiiy. There- 

 fore this mistaken and fbolisTi view of" the matter 

 causes property, after it has reached the 10 per 

 cent, of" nominal appreciation, suited to 10 per 

 cent, depreciation ot" the paper money, to con- 

 tinue to rise still higher, merely because of the 

 belief that the first rise was real, instead of nomi- 

 nal. And the more rapid, and the higher the ad- 

 vance m price, and the more baseless the appre- 

 ciation, the stronger will be the general con- 

 fidence in the " rise of" property," and the more 

 therefore will it continue to rise. But all this 

 delusion must come to an end, soon or late, either 

 by a return to specie payments and specie prices, 

 or by the people coming to a proper understand- 

 ing ol" the cause of the rise of prices. And both 



