Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News AND UPPER THAMES ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1895. MONEY CHANGERS.

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1735, 1 May 1895, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News AND UPPER THAMES ADVOCATE.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1895. MONEY CHANGERS.

■ ' This above all—tsthins own self be bruo, Vnd it ransb follow as the night the day Thou canst nob then be false bo any man. • SIIAK ESPKARB..

Newspapers' in all * parts of the world are teeming with demands for the remonetization of silver, ; and although we have desired to’stand clear of . the widespread debate; it seems tp be inevitable thatwe must tako a hand in the;fray. There was a time,, as all Christians: are a ware, when the Money. Changers were driven from the ’ Tentpie, which - they were accused of having converted into a den of thieves. In a certain sense the whole world is the Lord’s Temple, and there are those who.assert that the - Money Changers, who have succeeded in making gold thh medium of international exchange, to the,; exclusion of silver, which represented nearly one'half the coin of exchange, when the financial revolution was- effected, have 'secured' to themselves a coign of vantage, which would warrant another'application of thd whip, for the reason formerly given. We can see no reason why there should he a dearth of money for carrying on the world’s exchange. Governments should he able toldevise modes, whereby additional medea shall be made available, whenever the needs of. the race demand an extension of the means : .whereby the work of our markets maj be done. Exchequer “ tallies” in the did country been or. wood, from almost immediately after the Conquest, if not before ; and but for their cumbrousness, such tallies might he more extensively applied, with manifest -advantage.-' Coins are hut tallies, representing values which, frequently exist elsewhere. The Hudson’s Bay. Com - pany used marked! sticks, instead of coin, in purchasing peltry from the Indians, with-whom they traded ; and they furnished stores of all descriptions to their customers, when those sticks eyere presented as payment; so that the sticks were money in a limited lense. Certainly they were not cur•ent coin, when offered in other es;abli9hmontß; but that was a. difficulty vhich a clearing house might have settled. Cowrie shells have valuo as :oin within considerable areas ; and Bank of England notes are worth their me value in almost all countries, with •l-emiurns added in most instances, hough; they liave no actual government warranty behind them. Thus aper has often attained a value he-

yond its face warranty in gold." Venice and its banking institutions, wbieb lasted for six hundred yeara, will not readily be forgotton. VVben gold was made the medium of international exchange, by the fiat of certain con-' trading parties, whose individuality does not affect the question, £BOO,OOO- - was the understood total of- the coin available, and at that moment £700,000,000 of silver coin was rendered sterile, for the. greatest pui’pose it had served until that day. There were economists conversant with the danger of the revolution then affected, who foretold at the moment the depression which now afflicts humanity; because of the. appreciation of gold, then schemed for by interested parties ; and the same inen still say, as they kaid then, that the. world’s work cart, ’never be adequately done, until silver is remonetized; or until other means are devised for the duties which gold cannot discharge in the full and sufficient manner, in .which £1,5Q6, : 000,000 of gold and silver combined', did the work. ' They are not wedded to silver, provided 1 only that .some other medium can be made available to defeat the greed of the money changers ; but . they point with the energy of conviction to the experiences ;of the handful?of. years since the Bank of France ceased to exchange silver for gold at the rate, of 15£ to 1 ; as proof positive that something jpUst be done. Tt.-does nbt'touch the main issue to say that silver is now only half the price, or even - lessthan half ,the price at which it stood when its demonetization was effected. We do not ask what is the selling value or paper, hy the ton, when 'we are offered a Bank of England note. Nations can settle what 'shall be the'value of coined silver, and they can operate, by. the purchase of bar silver, for tie benefit of the overtaxed millions, who will gain decreased taxation, to the extent to which profit will be effected. -Whatpainted savages and grasping companies can do with marked sticks” ; the nations of Europe and America, with a sheaf of Colonies thrown in, ; should he' competent to effect with £200,000,000 rtf coined gold and silver as medea of exchange ;jand thenjwe shall see the factories'of the old world and the new ; the fertile acres of all climes and countries ; the ships and industries of all nations, equipped as they have never been equipped before, in tlie history, of the race, to achieve the highest purpose of mankind.