230 
Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
consumer if he did, because the more crude such calculations are 
the more likely are they to be unjust. But experience and the ex¬ 
ample of those who do perceive this element, regulate the conduct 
of those who do not. Many economic laws are obscure until 
analysis reveals them, but none the less do they exact obedience. 
The result of all this is, that the consumer of these commod¬ 
ities, constantly pays something above the maximum price, for all 
the gold which he thus indirectly buys, without getting the bene¬ 
fit of any decline unless it be decided and prolonged. To illustrate 
this point—if it be not superfluous—let us look jat an example 
which shows its workings in the simplest form. Ever}' country bank¬ 
er and foreign-passage ticket-agent, has an arrangement for selling 
foreign drafts to those of our citizens who desire, for any purpose, to 
make remittances to Europe. He draws direct, but, of course, does not 
keep funds in all the European cities; the drafts are protected by a 
banker or broker in New York who has direct communication 
abroad, and who supplies him with blank drafts, a list of foreign 
correspondents, and the gold rates for the different denominations 
of foreign moneys. Accompanying these is a letter of advice di¬ 
recting that until further notice, a given percentage must be added 
to gold-rates when currency remittances are made, and this per¬ 
centage is always somewhat larger than the highest market quota¬ 
tions at the time the letter is issued. On a rising market the let¬ 
ters advancing, this percentage comes with commendable prompti¬ 
tude, but though a declining market is followed, it is more tardily 
so; they are apt to wait a while to see if the decline is permanent. 
If, to avoid this obvious loss, the banker keeps a gold account in 
New York, and protects his drafts with coin, he does not usually 
feel that he can afford to hold the gold and take the chances of the 
market for a much less rate than the New York broker would 
charge. There is, therefore, on all these remittances, and their 
aggregate is very large, a margin of from one to two per cent, 
taken from the purchasers, who are, as a rule, poor though 
thrifty, as a direct result of the daily changes in the value 
of our money. Though not so readily seen the same kind 
of an addition, but larger in percentage and vastly greater in ag¬ 
gregate, is put upon the goods before alluded to. And this sort of 
thing cuts both ways; from every bushel of wheat that is sold and 
from every product, the price of which is regulated by export-de- 
