THE FARMER AND THE CURRENCY. 309 



be on the whole a very satisfactory standard, and at any rate 

 the best that can be had, and that we shall all be better off 

 if we assume it to be the standard, and govern ourselves 

 accordingly without worrying. 



When we come to look deeply into the matter we are 

 indeed compelled to confess tiiat in regard to value there 

 is, and apparently can be, no single substance which by 

 any course of reasoning can be shown to be a satisfactory 

 standard of value, and that in fact no one has yet been able to 

 see how in any way we can get such a standard. The best 

 thing we can do, or, at all events, the best thing any one has 

 yet been able to suggest, is to compare one or two commod- 

 ities with the aggregate of all other commodities, the latter 

 being taken as the standard. 



It is evident that if we had a complete list of everything 

 bought and sold in the world, with the exact quantity 

 used of each in a given time, and the totals of tiie sums 

 paid for each commodity for that time, we could obtain, by 

 dividing, the exact average price for each commodity at 

 that time, and the aggregate sum paid for the whole. If, 

 then, the next year, and thereafter each successive year, 

 we should repeat the operation, always using the same 

 quantity of each commodity, but the prices current in 

 each year, we should be able, by comparing the aggregate 

 sums paid, to know whether prices had risen or fallen. 

 Usually the aggregate i)rices would be found not far apart, for, 

 although the prices of tlie articles might not be the same in any 

 successive years, yet as some would certainly, according to all 

 human experience, be higher, and some lower, these would 

 tend to balance, and the aggregate remain the same. But in 

 this case we compare tiie aggregate of all commodities, with 

 their compensating tendencies, with a single commodity, gold, 

 or, at most, with gold and silver. It is, tlierefore, more reason- 

 able to assume the aggregate of all commodities as the 

 standard, and if the aggregate of money paid is larger, to say 

 that money has fallen, and if less, that money has appreciated. 



Now while it would not be possible to enumerate all the 

 commodities bought and sold in the world, much less to 

 24 



