Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
429 
Liverpool than in New York, we import it till prices become equal. 
If flour is dearer in Liverpool than in New York, we export it until 
prices grow equal. The same rule applies to iron, coal, wool, gold. 
Of course we put tariffs out of the question. I am speaking of the 
fundamental laws of trade. Tariffs are artificial arrangements. 
Let it be remembered, then, that the price in Liverpool fixes our 
price, and that the price in Liverpool is fixed by the state of the 
world. Now look at the effect of currency. Did all the assignats 
France issued affect the price of a hat in London? Did all the 
paper the confederacy wasted in printing money affect the price of 
a hat in New York? Of course not. Does our currency now affect 
the price of flour in Liverpool? Only in a very remote degree. 
And as Liverpool prices fix ours, our currency can have but lit¬ 
tle permanent effect on real prices. 
To show how little our note currency has to do with prices (the 
price of gold primarily and other prices in consequence), look at 
Carey's “Letters to Secretary Bristow/' pp. 5, 6, 7, 8. 
The currency, however, was then (during the war), as we are now 
constantly assured, greatly depreciated, gold having commanded 
heavy premiums, as certainly had been the case. How little, nev¬ 
ertheless, had been the connection between the supply of circula¬ 
ting notes and those premiums it is proposed now to show, as 
follows: 
At the close of 1862 the Government circulation amounted to 
little less than $300,000,000. As yet the state bank circulation re¬ 
mained undisturbed; and to obtain the actual quantity of circu¬ 
lating notes, it is needed now to add to the above the sum of 
$180,000,000, giving a total of $580,000,000. We have here a pro¬ 
digious and most rapid increase, and yet the gold premium had 
scarcely passed beyond 33. 
Two months later, in February, 1863, it stood at 71, with scarcely 
any perceptible increase in the circulating modium. In July the 
greenbacks had largely increased, their amount having reached 
$400,000,000, the premium meanwhile falling to 24. At the close 
of that year the legal-tenders in circulation had reached $500,000,000, 
exhibiting an increase of $200,000,000, attended with a decline of 
premium to the extent of 20 per cent.; the February premium of 
71 having been replaced by the December one of 51. 
The following year, 1864. exhibits in June an emission of com- 
