ON VAEIATIONS IN THE VALUE OF THE MONETARY STANDARD. 279 



is that type or norm likely to be adapted to the requirements of the 

 individual. The correction of appreciation, which may be effected by 

 the infusion of metallic money, is therefore likely to be of less benefit 

 than that which attends the method of contracting in Units. 



(4) Moreover, in the latter case the measure of the evil and of the 

 remedy is the same. The same calculation w^iich gives the appreciation 

 assigns the Unit in terms of which debts are to be paid. But it is 

 not so where the remedy is the augmentation of legal-tender money. 

 The extent of the evil (the appreciation) having been found, the extent 

 of the remedy is still to seek. For it is a very naive ' conception that, 

 in order to increase prices all round in a certain ratio, it is necessary 

 and sufficient to increase the quantity of legal-tender money in that 

 ratio. 



These imperfections of the method under consideration may be thus 

 summed up : (1) It cannot even aim at certain objects which are 

 within the range of the alternative method. (2) The objects which it 

 does aim at are not sighted so clearly ; its shots are apt to be very wide of 

 the mark. (3) The advantage of hitting the mark, the prize to be won, 

 the quarry to be brought down, is not so considerable as in the case of 

 the alternative method. (4) Lastly, in the one case we shoot point- 

 blank ; having discovered the position of the object, we have the direction 

 in which we ought to aim. But in the other case the trajectory has yet 

 to be calculated, in virtue of which, being given the position of the 

 object, we can deduce the direction of our aim.- 



The following metaphor may assist conception. Let us represent the various 

 commodities and their values by so many rectangular chambers tilled with fluid 

 and (more or less perfectly) percolating into each other, fig. 1 in fcject. II. may be 

 regarded as representing a vertical section of such a set of chambers. The height 

 of any chamber, e.ff., a H or 8 H', represents the quantity of the commodity ex- 

 changed ^ (per unit of time) in objective measure, e.ff., hundredweights or days' 

 labour. The quantity of fluid per unit height represents the price of eacii com- 

 modity. 



Now let such a change come over this system that on an average the chambers 

 contain less fluid per unit height. Or more exactly, let the change be such that if 

 we take here one large group of chambers, and there another (the mean of), each 

 different group will present much the same degree of depletion. Under these 

 circumstances the remedy for the general depletion is simple : namely, to pump 

 fluid into (one or more of) the- chambers until (by the action of percolation) the 

 contents of the average chamber per unit height are restored to the former status. 



But now suppose that the changes m the contents of the different cham- 

 bers are (owing to changes in the dimensions of the chambers) no longer 

 grouped about a true mean as above defined. Let the whole aggregate be 

 divisible into two systems, for one of which the contents (per unit height) are 

 considerably and pretty imiformly increased, for the other similarly decreased. 

 After such a change one of the systems has its chambers much fuller (per unit 

 height), the other much emptier, than at first. Under these circumstances it will 

 be found a rather unmeaning problem to pour in fluid until the status quo of the 

 contents is restored. At least the meaning is no longer on the face of the data, 

 but has to be read in ' ab eatra.' For instance, with reference to certain uses we 

 might assign different degrees of importance to the different chambers. We might 



• See below, p. 294. 



- Whether these disadvantages are compensated by the greater practicability of 

 the Bimetallistic scheme it does not come within the scope of this memorandum to 

 consider. 



' ' Exchanged,' rather than ' consumed,' would seem to be here the appropriate 

 conception. 



