Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Mono-Metalism and Bi-Metalism: Or, the Science of Monetary Values
Demand and supply, while commodities have special value, growing entirely out of demand and supply made effectual through money: I have written and published two books, in which this theory is set forth, called Political Economy in the Use of Money, and Mone tary and Industrial Fallacies: A Dialogue. I refer to them here, for the special purpose of showing how easy it is to be misunderstood, when writing upon the subject of money, even by very clear-headed men, who have both thought and written upon it with ability. One writer states, that it is nothing new to affirm that money is not a commodity. That is all very true, ' but if money is not, even in the form of gold and silver, a commodity, then it certainly has no value as a com modity, because it is not subject to the action of de mand and supply. But money certainly has value of a high order, and if it is not of the commodity or mer cantile order, of what order is it? That is the ques tion, and a very important question: it is not a mere question of words. Another writer asserted, that my theory virtually denied all value to money, whereas the general agreement to use, and the actual use of metallic money, of itself conferred value, founded upon utility for that purpose. This is precisely the doctrine that I contend for, myself. The error of the last writer lies in the assumption that the latter form of value must necessarily be of a commodity or mercantile sort, and that there is no other kind of value. The error of the first writer lies, not in supposing that money must neces sarily be a commodity, and therefore possessed of com modity or mercantile value, but in treating the differ ence between money and commodity, whatever it may be, as comparatively unimportant. The practically im portant fact is, that most writers upon money treat it as a commodity; bankers bank with it as a com modity; and governments adopt mono-metalism and bi metalism, upon the theory of commodity and standard. From my standpoint, mono-metalism and bi-metalism cannot be intelligently examined without a true theory of money, and inasmuch as I believe my theory toviii prepa C' E.
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