EXPORTS OF WHEAT FLOUR. 19 



is, from the farmer's standpoint, a lamentable evidence of tariff 

 spoliation} <J<T*WY/*>^ to the Chicago Tribune ! 



The ready answer comes back, that the above prices stand for 

 depreciated and irredeemable paper-money; are reckoned in that 

 worthless trash called greenbacks; While the prices under partial 

 Free Trade are really higher, although nominally lower, because 

 they represent the purchasing power of gold. It is about time to 

 sweep this pernicious error into the general pile of useless rubbish. 

 Here is what was thought and written about this wonderful gold-base 

 currency, when it was in circulation. We copy from the "Sixth 

 Annual Review of the Commerce, Manufactures, and the Public 

 and Private Improvements of Chicago, for the year 1857," pub- 

 lished from the columns of the Chicago Daily Press. Our extract 

 appears on page 25, as follows: 



Till the 1 2th of last September, for nearly four years past, the range for ex- 

 change on New York has been three-quarters of one per cent., the variation being 

 from i/4@ ^ P er cent, premium. As most of our readers have had occasion 

 to feel, since September the price has been ruinously high; but such has been 

 the determination of our mercantile community to maintain their honor untarn- 

 ished that enormous sacrifices have been cheerfully made to meet maturing obli- 

 gations. Ten per cent, has been the highest tirice charged by the regular bankers ; 

 but for many days during the last three months they have had nont to sell even at 

 these figures. Twelve and even fifteen per cent, has been paid by parties to the 

 brokers for small amounts, rather than have notes protested. 



These enormous prices for exchange have cost our city an immense amount of 

 money ; but as a whole there can be no doubt that it has been a great and posi- 

 tive advantage to our trade to do it. IT WAS CAUSED BY THE IM- 

 POSSIBILITY OF CONVERTING THE BILLS OF THE ILLINOIS AND 

 WISCONSIN BANKS INTO COIN. * * * For a time no one dared to 

 keep an account in St. Louis, for nearly all the banks and bankers failed or were 

 considered in a most precarious condition. 



Such was the paper money, equivalent to gold, in which our 

 farmers were paid for their grain, and which, as is asserted, pos- 

 sessed a greater purchasing power than greenbacks. What a mock- 

 ery of the facts ! 



Even if we take the false method usually employed to reduce 

 currency prices to equivalent gold, we shall arrive at results which 

 emphatically contradict the assertion that the assumed coin values, 

 embodied in average export prices under partial Free Trade, rep- 

 resent higher coin values than the average export prices in currency 

 under the Protective policy. For example, take the following: 



