302 Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
that the sum of values may be increased or diminished by the in¬ 
crease or diminution of things having value. But the value of no 
individual thing can he increased without a diminution of the value 
of something else. If the value of thirty, or fifty, or any other 
number of articles is increased, there must be a corresponding de¬ 
crease in the value of some other article or articles. If the value 
of all other articles except one be diminished, the value of that one 
will be increased in a precisely corresponding ratio. It makes no 
difference what these commodities may be, whether cloth or leather, 
wheat or lumber. 
Such being the general rule, the question arises, is gold any ex¬ 
ception to it? Has gold, when used as money, a uniformity which 
no other commodity has, or which it has not when not used as 
money? Or does it follow the same natural law to which all other 
values are subject? Some of the ablest of our recent writers on 
political economy, and those, too, who are ardent supporters of a 
value currency and a gold basis, now concede that there is no such 
stability of value in gold. Among these I may mention Cairnes, 
Fawcett, and Jevons, all writers of acknowledged authority. 
But this doctrine of the fluctuating value of gold is admitted 
practically by even those who deny it theoretical^. The advo¬ 
cates of a metallic currency, hold that certain principles are firmly 
established; among others that any amount of gold and silver in 
existence, is sufficient to make the exchanges of the community 
and of the world; that if there be less at any one point, the value 
of all commodities will fall, and the value of money will rise, till 
the supply of the instrument of exchange will equalize the demand; 
if there be more, prices will rise till they absorb the surplus, and 
this by a natural law. They also explain that the doctrine may be 
stated in another way, viz., that gold always goes from where it is 
dear and scarce. Now, if gold be of uniform value, how can it be 
dear in one place and cheap in another, or how can it be cheaper 
or dearer in any place at one time than at another? If general 
prices have fallen and risen, then money, which is the correlative 
of commodities in the relation indicated by price, must have also 
correspondingly risen or fallen. 
The theory of Professor Summer, and those who think with him, 
in relation to the regulation of prices on the basis of a gold cur¬ 
rency, I take to be substantially as follows: If for any reason gold 
