64: 
Wisconsin - State Agricultural Society. 
ANNUAL ADDRESSES. 
Delivered on the Fair Grounds, September 9, 1875, By Hon. Geo. W. Cate, M. C., 
and David Ward Wood, Esq., of the Western Rural , Chicago. It is to be regretted 
that Judge Cate’s able address cannot be given in full, but as he has failed to supply 
the manuscript, although earnestly solicited to do so, the following brief extracts taken 
from the Milwaukee News of September 10, will give the reader a general idea of 
the address, which was an excellent description of money, its uses and abuses, and 
was listened to with interest. 
FINANCE. 
BY HON. GEO. W. CATE. 
The needs and wants of trade require a circulating medium far 
greater in volume than the amount of the stamped coin of the coun¬ 
try, and just in proportion in all ages as the necessities or conven¬ 
iences of trade has demanded, just in that proportion has this pa¬ 
per currency come into use and taken the place of coin. To show 
the magnitude of this circulating medium, it is necessary to men¬ 
tion that the amount of gold and silver in the world is but three 
per cent, of the whole amount of our currency, including corn and 
all kinds of paper currency. How small a fraction of the exchan¬ 
ges of the world demanding the offices of a circulating medium is 
performed by coin? Ninety-seven per cent, of paper in some form, 
to three per cent of coin. The legitimate and lawful currency of 
the country is trifling in amount when compared with those forms 
and descriptions of indebtedness, bills of exchange, cheques, drafts, 
notes, etc., that enter so largely into the transactions of the com¬ 
mercial world, in the place of a lawful and legalized currency, and 
will be resorted to just in proportion as the lawful legalized cur¬ 
rency is scarce or plenty, equal to the demands of business, or falls 
below it. 
