1871J Science of Money. 319 



kind of value, at once durable for keeping purposes and rea- 

 dily realisable, would be specially attractive to those having 

 a surplus they were not otherwise prepared to invest. This 

 practice become general, the bars are of course the subject 

 of a much more extended market than before. Constantly 

 bought and sold, not merely for the original manufacturing 

 but for intermediate holding purposes, they thus come to be 

 by far the most negociable of all articles. 



A result of this practice, and one prompt to show itself, 

 is that every other article comes to be valued in these iron 

 bars. The needs of commerce will early jump at this ob- 

 vious facility. Then, as every article has its value in bars, 

 that indispensable basis of business — a price current of the 

 market — becomes possible, because the bars are a common 

 measure of value. The price current quickly makes its appear- 

 ance. Further, the growing facilities of dealing in bars lead 

 eventually to every exchange, as a rule, being effected by the 

 medium of the bars. Both the facility and the accuracy of 

 dealing in this way are so obvious that direct exchange or 

 barter, as a rule of dealing at least, definitively dies out. 



Let us realise clearly the position we have now reached. 

 At first the bars were selected as a suitable kind of value for 

 a temporary investment. This operation was simply one 

 variety of the general barter system then going on. At last 

 we find that exchanges generally, not merely those for a 

 distinctly purposed although temporary holding, are effected 

 in the first instance for bars. In fact, as the practical facility 

 from accurate valuation and ready dealing gives a most 

 decided superiority to this mode, seemingly round-about 

 although it be. 



Everything thus comes to be bought or sold in bars, 

 whether for immediate exchange or upon a time contract. 

 Some traders might still barter direct or bargain in kind. 

 They might, for instance, exchange so much wheat for a 

 sheep, or deliver at once a ton of lead in consideration of a 

 ton and something more of the same three months hence. 

 Most persons, however, will gradually prefer to contract 

 value for value, which they are enabled to do by contracting 

 for payment in bars. Bars are the most accurate and indis- 

 putable value, as well as the most realisable of all articles. 

 Eventually, the custom is universal, at least in any consi- 

 derable market. All bargains, then, as a rule being for bars, 

 every trader has his stock of bars to accurately balance as 

 well as otherwise facilitate his dealings. Lastly comes a 

 trader who deals only in bars, and who yet has no connection 

 with the special manufacturers the bars were originally 



