MONOPOLY OF EXCHANGE. 4 T 9 



security ; and all these things are stimulated by an abun- 

 dant volume of circulating medium. Even the harvested 

 grain of the farmer remains without a market, unless 

 money is forthcoming for its movement and transportation 

 to the seaboard. The first results of a scarcity of money 

 among the people is the exaction of severe terms for its 

 use ; increasing distrust and timidity is followed by a 

 refusal to loan or advance on any terms. Investors refuse 

 all risks and decline all securities, and in a general fright 

 the money still in the hands of the people is persistently 

 hoarded. It is quite apparent that when this perfectly 

 natural, if not inevitable, stage is reached, depression in 

 all business and enterprise will, as a necessary consequence, 

 lessen the opportunity for work and employment, and 

 reduce salaries and the wages of labor." Grover Cleve- 

 land, in his letter of acceptance, 1888. 



Mr. Gurney, member of the British Parliament, says. 

 "The contraction of the paper circulation of the British 

 empire from the results of the act imposing the resumption 

 of specie payments on the Bank of England and 230 

 county banks was a reduction from ^60,000,000 during 

 the last years of the [Napoleonic] war to a little more than 

 half that amount. Such was the calamity, and so exten- 

 sive the distress that followed that it pervaded every part 

 of the country. The landed proprietors could get no rents, 

 the manufacturers no markets, the laborers no employment. 

 Bankruptcy was universal. Fluctuations in prices were 

 frightful, descending 50 per cent." 



M. Ricardo says: u That commodities will rise and fall 

 in price in proportion to the increase or diminution of money 

 I assume as a fact that is incontrovertible. That such 

 would be the case the most celebrated writers on political 

 economy are agreed." 



Like authorities might be quoted indefinitely, but it 



