Show NUMBER THREE A OP VALUE there is talk of eicele double standard etan dard and even triple standard etan dard of values and in order to understand the meaning of the word standard as related to values reference buet be biad to the nature and origin of money it afta only as a means of facilitating cili tating an exchange of valuable things that money camo into use if man produced tor himself everything that he needed there would be no exchanges and no money the first exchanges were of commodities back and forth and there being no general prices the trade was co verned largely by individual preference and caprice an indian would trade a pony or a piece of land for a bit of cloth or a toy fieh would bo traded for corn or cattle when one article would come into more general demand euch as cattle or rare articles or beautiful shel s or curios it would bo used to exchange for many other desirable things and at this stage exchanges took on the broader form of traffic or commerce claths cloths beads metals tobacco ballets and decoro of such like things have been used to negotiate exchanges that is hundred useful things would measure themselves into cloth at bome stipulated 1 rate in this case cloth was a standard of values at another place gold or silver would be used in varying proportions as standards of values and exchanges of commodities would bo made into eo much of one 0 other of aliese metals by weight each of theeo articles that came into general use for commercial purposes would be standard of values and at rude periods before commerce became universal there were a hundred different standards of value by the pre valance of commerce it resulted that a few suitable articles such as would be portable durable and trans formable were made values these have been chiefly gold and silver and they mean as money the same as beads cattle bullets tobacco and whatever else has been used to measure values note that whenever cloths or tobacco or nails were used in commerce without reference to any other standard itan dard of values they took on the money function and became money note also that in all this species of commerce the supremacy comes about by custom could be no legislation and so the will of society grows up in the form of prevailing custom now tins is the character of the world standard of money or of values today not by legislation legi but by force of custom and the supremacy of certain nations in commerce not tobacco or ebeler but gold is made the standard of values it is purely a relic of the custom of all the past gold is now only known in the world by weight it is the universal commodity its use in alie arts is governed by its broader use as measuring all other values hence the commercial use of gold is identical with its money use for it measures idolf into all other things throughout the world by weight us the universal instrument of ex charge As a standard etan dard of values gold ie supreme not coined gold but commercial gold bullion gold having said this much in regard to gold exercising its money or exchangeable power as a standard of values by weight it is necessary to guard against a sophistry or rather a spurious conception eliat is likely to arise as to its money power or measuring power being a quality or property of the metal itself if it were made very plentiful it would cease to bo a beaure of values hence no money quality can be ent in it it is absurd to say that the valnes of things can inhere in another thing which gives value to anything is its to human wants and desires the value is subjective it is alie estimation the appreciation of the mind the exchangeable power of commodity to us is its power to make us sacrifice other things that we anve or control in order to secure it hence the exchangeable power of a tiling is u from a limitation of the quantity or quality of the thing air light and water indispensable but they exact sacrifices of other things in order to get them hence they leave infinite value in virtue of their inherent properties buano exchangeable values now gold comes to us as the representative of everything else in desiring any thins we ube desire gold and in demanding gold we demand those identical qualities and properties eliat constitute gold but mark you and here is the sophistry the spurious conception we dont desire those properties for their own sake or in their own proper nature a gold but simply for their purchasing power their money power or the office they perform standard Etan dard of values or medium of exchange we may want jewelry but otherwise all the gold in alie world is nothing to us except as it performs a certain office in society if it had not been gold it might have been tobacco or ethelh or pearl ornaments or aluminium or anything else that would have performed the same office now it is imply the voice and the custom of society that hae given this function to eold and precisely the same principle only in a more form is embodied in legislation society ordain that greenbacks should bo our of values but like gold if they should be made very plentiful alicy would cease to perform their office it is evident therefore that the question of baand ard of values or of several standards of values is not simply question of this or material or thing whether gold dilver or paper but a question also of value or amount A standard etan dard of values is that unit or tiling into which all things clue measure themselves for purposes of exchange or comparison As a single standard the gold of the world is one unit other bilings are measured into that unit it that unit shrink in size or measuring capacity all things else ehrick accordingly if that unit expands in capacity other thines expand in exchangeable power hence under a single gold standard the money power of the number of grains eliat are called a dollar is equal to its fractional proportion of the total agold in bao in relation to the bulk of purchasable things in the commercial field as the of gold in question therefore alie question of a standard of values is only one end of a question tho other end beina the value of a standard of values and we will consider this question further on |