On the Probable Fall in the Value of Gold

by Michel Chevalier, Richard Cobden (Translator)

Overview

The accomplished author of this treatise has been known as one of the most earnest writers in favour of free trade, and as the champion of every cause which tends to promote the progress of an elevated civilisation, and the best interests of humanity. He has qualified himself for this task by a long and laborious study of the currency question, having given to the world some essays on money and the precious metals, which are recognised as standard works, and invest his name with an authority on such subjects, hardly second to that of Humboldt himself. In the pages of this book will be found almost every fact and argument necessary for the formation of an opinion on one of the most important problems of our day, and they are presented with all the care and conscientiousness for which the writer is so distinguished.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783849651534
Publisher:	Jazzybee Verlag
Publication date:	03/08/2018
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	300
File size:	337 KB

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER II. OF THE MEANING OF THE WORD STANDARD.THE METAL- STANDARD IS THAT FROM WHICH IS DERIVED THE MONETARY UNIT.THE TWO IDEAS STANDARD AND MONETARY UNIT IMPLY EACH THE OTHER. In the preceding chapter the reader may have remarked the expression the matter, or the substance of which money is made. Nevertheless, in most countries, it is not of one material that money is made; but pieces of gold and silver circulate together indiscriminately. Yet it must not from that be assumed that the two metals, gold and silver, figure in the monetary system with the same prerogatives. We are about to call attention to a word of which it is important to fix the meaning,I mean the term, standard. On this subject it is necessary to guard ourselves against a certain confusion of language. Some persons apply the name of monetary standard to pieces of a metal to indicate that they cannot be refused in payment. That is not the way in which the word standard will be employed in the course of this work, nor is it its legitimate meaning. When it is the privilege of a metal that the coins of which it is made cannot be refused in payment, it is because it is endowed with the attribute of legal tender, which is very different from that of the standard. When it is said that such or such a metal is the standard, it means that the monetary unit is a certain weight, settled once for all, of this metal, which is, however, quite recon- cileable with a state of things where coins of another metal might be equally a legal tender. Thus in France, at the present time, gold is a legal tender, although silver alone is the standard, and constitutes the sole monetary unit. In a word, standard and monetary unit are termsallied in the closest manner to each other, and they are synonymous the one with t...