350 THE QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 



needs and will have the most money ^jer capita where most 

 "business" is done. There are.seldom any means of knowing 

 the amount of money actually in a community or a nation at 

 a given time, or how long it will stay there,* and absolutely 

 no means of knowing in advance how much is required. At 

 any rate, whatever there is is enough so far as the transaction 

 of the business is concerned, or the use of money merely as 

 a medium of exchange. Least of all is any "per capita" 

 estimate, such as we often see, of any value whatever. It 

 simply tends to a confusion of thought. I have said that 

 whatever money there is, within reason, is enough, so far as 

 getting all necessary enclianging done, because the absence of 

 money to effect an exchange, proves that it is not necessary to 

 be made. No one wants the commodities that are for sale, or 

 they can be more cheaply bought elsewhere. If, however, 

 money, or credit in a form to serve the purpose of money, is 

 scarce, as it will be when there is fear or uncertainty as to 

 financial conditions in the near future, while exchanges will 

 not usually stop, prices will be low, while if money and credit 

 are abundant prices will be higher. 



This brings me to the second branch of my subject — money 

 as a measure of value. It is only in regard to this function 

 of money that there is ever any serious popular controversy. 

 There are a great number of definitions of money, and I do 

 not intend to add to them. The definition which is most com- 

 monly employed in popular discussion is that it is "a medium 

 of exchange and a measure of value." t 



The second part of this definition, which I take because it 



*A11 my readers are familiar with the fact that in the autumn when most 

 crops are for sale, money is brought into the country " to move crops." The 

 farmers are paid cash. This they distribute to their creditors, and in a week it 

 is all back in the banks ready to pay for more crops. This is nearly all borrowed 

 money. When all the crops are })ou!j;ht the money goes elsewhere to be used 

 in other ways. 



t Socialists insist that the only proper measure of value is the labor units 

 oinployed in production, excluding rent, interest, and profits whose justice they 

 do not acknowledge. .Single taxers also consider labor the ultimate measure of 

 valvjf, although they do not exclude interest and profits. 



