18 MUTUAL BANKING. 



king and the demigod of commodities.* Hence follow great social 

 and political evils. The medium of exchange was not established 

 for the purpose of creating a new, Inestimable, marketable commo- 

 dity, but for the single end or purpose of facilitating exchanges. 

 Society established gold and silver as an instrument to mediate be- 

 tween marketable commodities; but what new instrument shall it 

 create to mediate between the old marketable commodities, and the 

 new commodity which it has itself called into being? And if it suc- 

 ceed in creating such new instrument, what mediator can it find for 

 this new instrument itself, etc.? Here the gulf yawns! No bridge 

 save that of usury has been thrown, as yet, over this gulf. Our 

 exposition is evidently on the brink of the infinite series; we are 

 marching rapidly forward to the abyss of absurdity. The logicians 

 know well what the sudden appearance of the infinite series in an 

 investigation signifies; it signifies the recognition of a phenomenon 

 and the assigning to it of a mere concomitant, to stand to it in the 

 place of cause. The phenomenon we here recognize is circulation 

 or exchange, and we ignore its cause, for we endeavor to account 

 for it by the movement of specie; which movement is neither circu- 

 lation nor the cause of circulation. But more of this hereafter. Let 

 us return to the subject with which wc are more immediately con- 

 cerned; noting, meanwhile, that a specie currency is an absurdity. 



THE EVILS OF A SPECIE CURKENCY— USURY. 



Society established gold and silver as a circulating medium, in 

 order that exchanges of commodities might be facilitated; but 

 society made a mistake in so doing; for by this very act it gave to a 

 certain class of men the power of saying what exchanges shall, and 

 what exchan[,2s shall not, be facilitated by means of this very 

 circulating medium. The monopolizers of the precious metals have 

 an undue power over the community; they can say whether money 

 shall, or shall not, be permitted to exercise its legitimate functions. 

 These men have a veto on the action of money, and therefore on 

 exchanges of commodity; and they will not take o(T their veto un- 

 til they have received usury, or, as it is more politely termed, inter- 

 est on their money. Here is the great objection to the present cur- 

 rency. Behold the manner in which the absurdity inherent in a 

 specie currency— or, what is still worse, in a currency of paper 

 based upon specie— manifests itself in actual operation! The me- 

 diating value which society hoped would facilitate exclianges be- 

 comes an absolute marketable commodity, its<'lf transcending all 

 roach of mediation. Tlie great natural diiliculty which originally 

 .stood in the way of exchang(!S is now thi; privati! property of a 

 class, and this class cultivate this diiliculty, and make money out 

 of it, ev(?n as a farmer cultivates his farm and makes moiKiy by nis 

 labor. But there is a difference between the farmer and the usurer; 



•Money 1^ mprfiiiiiKlIsc .just like jiny other merchandise, precisely as 

 thi' TiirMi' !•< .1 card .just, like any other card. 



