What is money? The reply of most will be, That something which raises us above those small schemes and struggling in which the mass of the people have to pass their existence; that something which enables us to feel secure of our position, which enables us to be uppermost, to feel ourselves on the highest round of the social ladder, and therefore worshipped by all of us, because we hate the idea of being inferior to anybody. Men will cease to put their trust in money, and be more disposed to put their money in trust, when they understand better what "money" is merely a means, an instrument, a something by which you may indicate to others what your character is. It is a potent power in the hands of the wise. It is not plenty of the "circulating medium" that enriches a people, but the use they make of it. It is our duty, as it is for our interest, to study and understand "what is money," so as to derive from it all the benefit that can be obtained by its use. Not to think of it in the sense that Hesiod wrote, that "money is life to us wretched mortals;" but to recognize, with Carlyle, that it is "the pineal flame of the body social." Money is the great wheel of circulation and distributionthe great instrument of commerce-the medium through which the debts, the wages, the incomes of the different members of the community are distributed to them, exchanges are effected by them, and the measure by which they estimate their possessions.

"He who knows, like St. Paul, both how to spare and how to abound, has a great knowledge; for if we take account of all the virtues with which money is mixed up-honesty, justice, generosity, charity, frugality, forethought, self-sacrifice-and of their correlative vices, it is a knowledge which goes near to cover the length and breadth of humanity; and a right measure and manner in getting, saving, spending, giving, taking, lending, borrowing, and bequeathing, would almost argue a perfect man. . . . It behoves him who is getting money, even more than him who has it by inheritance, to bear in mind what are the uses of money, and what are the proportions and properties to be observed in saving, giving, and spending; for rectitude in the management of money consists in the symmetry of these three" (SIR HENRY TAYLOR).

"Can gold calm passion, or make reason thine?
Can we dig peace or wisdom from the mine?
Wisdom to gold prefer, for 'tis much less

To make our fortune than our happiness.
Nay, more than this, I can most truly state,
The happy only are the truly great."

CURRENCY.

"The awful shadow of some unseen power
Floats, though unseen, amongst us."

SHELLEY.

CURRENCY-a region of mystery, that may be justly described as chaos. The word has been a bugbear at all times; introduce it, you are voted a bore; men fly from the subject, as though to obtain clear, definite, and intelligible knowledge thereof was a task exceeding the powers of the human intellect. I have written this book, believing that not only is man easily able to understand what money, bank notes, bills, &c., are, but that he ought to know all about such important subjects. Currency is only an invention of man's, a contrivance devised for, and capable of being altered to suit, the wants of, and render an indispensable service to the practical life of, every civilized people. It is an insult to the Creator to imagine that man's reason cannot comprehend the action of an instrument, a machine invented by man himself, to perform a specific purpose; that he cannot understand the operations of a tool constructed at the dawn of civilization, and which has gradually been varied and its powers added to, according to the need of man's progress. Whether they will trouble themselves to study and master the subject or not remains to be seen; but this is certain, that it is of vital importance to the prosperity and happiness of every nation to solve correctly this currency question, as a bad or inadequate currency inflicts the most severe calamities on a nation; periods of loss and ruin, public and private, are inevitable, from an ill adapted, badly constructed currency. It seems incredible that men should be satisfied with using so important a tool as money, a tool that is in every man's hand, and yet never give a thought to the question-What money is, what it does; is it a good tool, can we have a better; or does our present currency do for us all money can do or we require it to do for us? I have no doubt in my own mind that money might be made infinitely more useful to every living being if they properly understood what it is; and also as positively assert that it is a subject that can be easily and naturally explained, and be understandable by every one, if men only choose that it shall be.

The currency of the world includes many kinds of money. Gold, silver, copper, iron, in coins, or by weight; stamped leather, stamped paper, wooden tallies; shells of various kinds; pieces of silk, or strips of cotton cloth, of a fixed size and quality,-are, or have been, all in use among mankind as forms of currency, as convenient and negotiable forms or representatives of property. Many of these kinds of money are simultaneously in use in the same country. Gold, silver, copper, and stamped paper coexist as different forms of money in the currency of Europe and America; gold, silver, paper, copper, and shells, in India; silver, copper, and pieces of silk, in China; copper, copper strips, shells, and the silver dollar, in various parts of Africa. Sparta had a currency of iron; Carthage, of stamped leather, like our paper money. There is ample variety in the substances out of which money is made-metals, shells, cloth, leather, and paper. Moreover, every country shapes these substances, or such of them as it uses for currency, in a different form from the others. In an act of barter, each of the two parties makes both a sale and a purchase; each, in parting with what he had, at the same time received an equivalent. The introduction of a currency, or "medial commodity," divides the act of barter into two parts. Thenceforth the seller exchanges his goods, not for goods at the time, but for a something that gives him the power to purchase, which he can exercise as best suits his convenience. The essence of a "medial commodity" is, that it gives this power. "In history, there is no example, I believe, of the transition from a state of barter to the use of a currency. Every existing currency has flowed down to us out of that cloud which envelops the origin of nations. A currency being, in the happy phrase of Mr. Bailey, a medial commodity, it is natural to suppose that that commodity which was best known, which it cost nearly equal sacrifices to obtain, and which was itself often the subject of exchange, would become a familiar standard of comparison for settling exchanges, and then a generally acceptable substitute, where a seller wished to reserve the power of purchase accruing to, him from the sale, for a future occasion. Thus cattle were used in the Homeric ages, salt still in Abyssinia, tea in Tartary" ("Money and Morals ").

Currency implies the state or quality of being current; a continual passing from person to person; a general acceptance; that which is in circulation, or that which is given and taken as having value, or as representing property; as the currency of a country, a specie currency. Currency is that which is in circulation. Every day a large amount of bills, which the Bank of England has discounted, are falling due, and are being paid to it in notes; or the notes of the

Bank are presented for payment in gold. The Bank of England never re-issues any of its notes; but, when its stock of gold remains unaltered, it places an amount of new notes in its banking department, equal to that of the old ones which it has received in payment for its lapsed bills or gold. The notes thus kept in the banking department are "inactive "-they are not in circulation. They are currency, but for the time being are not part of the currency; they are not in use, but only ready to be put in use. In the same country there is often a limitation to the circulation of some kinds of money. The sovereign, though a legal tender, and readily accepted in Scotland, does not circulate there, the Scotch preferring paper money, as, in their opinion, the more safe and convenient form of currency, and also as the cheapest. Scotch bank notes do not circulate in the other parts of the kingdom. In England, the notes of the provincial banks may circulate readily in the district where the issuing bank is situate, but are looked upon with suspicion elsewhere, for no other reason than that the public are not familiar with them, and view with suspicion any money they are not accustomed to, and, therefore, have not the necessary confidence in. Hence we find banking and paper money only used in the currencies of the most highly civilized kingdoms. Paper money plays the most important part of all currency in carrying on the work of exchange; without it, the present commerce of the world would be impossible. It enables us to do without metallic money; it should always be used freely, but with prudence, and on good security, when the needs of commerce require it. A bit of paper, that we have faith in, like a Bank of England note, because it is "issued against value," is as good as gold; it has the quality which gives to all other substances its power in money-the agreement on the part of the people to recognize it, and accept it as a "representative of wealth," for which they are willing to give their "real wealth" in exchange. Nations want a currency that will enable them to carry on the work of exchange. The stock of gold is not equal to do this; but by thought and faith, men have arranged to do without gold. Why? Because all the various forms of currency are dependent for their value upon public opinion, or conventional agreement; this value is "a something" imparted to them by the consent of the people among whom they circulate. Currency of every kind, everywhere, is essentially dependent upon man's faith in man, upon which credit is based. Having faith, we give trust; we accept the shadow for the substance; we take the representative as contentedly as if the "five-pound note " were five golden sovereigns. The currency, like "Cæsar's wife, should be above suspicion." Money is a reservoir of great power; it is con

densed wealth, available at any moment, for any purpose. "If there were no currency, no conventional means of storing up accumulated gains in an instantaneously negotiable form, how long would be the time, and how cumbrous the preparation, requisite to perform an expedition, to get up a railway company, or to accomplish any great object!"

A currency is a spontaneous growth of commerce, and one of the earliest developments of exchange. In early records we find commodities frequently valued in sheep, in oxen, or in horses; but as transactions became numerous, great inconveniences were found in these early media. When a medium of exchange is of uncertain value, exchange will be hindered, and will be subject to the double disadvantage of being unduly favourable to the one party, or unduly adverse to the other, and the even course of industry, the only true source of prosperity, will be disturbed equally by successes which have not been merited, and by disasters which could not be anticipated. Hence the value of a metal like gold, the quantity of which is limited, can only be increased slowly, the supply of which has kept pace with the demand for it; this equilibrium between the supply and the demand of an article used as currency is of the greatest importance, as there is nothing more injurious than a currency based on a metal liable to fluctuations in value. It is owing to the greater scarcity of it that gold is so much better adapted for a legal tender than silver.

Money superseded barter, because by barter it was not always possible to dispense with that which was useless, and by barter we had to buy at the time of selling. Money fixed a price to merchandise, and could, possessing a real value, purchase, at any time and anywhere, corresponding value in other commodities to those given for it. The official stamp, the substance being of intrinsic value, is an outward sign of this intrinsic value-hence its utility; and it is only by giving this guarantee that the Government earns the right to enforce by law the acceptance of the coinage for the sum it represents; a right which can only be lawfully maintained when the Government has acted with perfect fairness. No Government has a right to adulterate the public money, justifying their conduct by the sophism that the value of the coin is derived from their own sacred impress affixed to it, or to restrict the operation of the Currency Act. After the suspension of cash payments, 1797, until Peel's Act of 1844, the directors of the Bank of England could issue what notes they liked; and the same power was given by the Government when they suspended the Act in 1847, 1857, 1866. The principles of the Currency Act are sound or unsound; if sound, the Act must not be tampered with; if unsound, let it be altered. No Government has the right to assign