Arthur Isaac Fonda

“ All economists recognize the fact that the immediate determiner of value is the relation between supply and demand. These terms in their economic sense mean something more than mere desire and mere quantity. Supply means the amount offered in exchange, and demand means not only a desire, but a desire coupled with the ability and willingness to give other commodities in exchange for the one wanted. ”

“ Not that our foreign commerce would be lessened, or would be free from the effects of commercial disturbances in other countries: commerce is such a world-wide and intricate network that it would be impossible, even if it were desirable, for one country not to be affected by changes in others; but our money, the prices of commodities, as a whole, in that money, and the relations of debtor and creditor in this country would be free from foreign influences. ”

“ A universal money for the whole world has been the dream of some writers. This in many respects would be a convenience, as would a general uniformity of weights and measures; but its benefits would be confined mainly to a saving of clerical work, and even this would not be as great an advantage as might be supposed, since differences in value of bills of exchange would continue to exist, even as they now exist between countries using the same money, or even between different cities of the same country. ”

“ A panic, whatever the cause, manifests itself as an unreasoning fear and distrust, which prevents credit from doing its usual work, and creates an excessive demand for money; not only because the money is then needed by each individual who demands it, but because each is afraid if he does not get it then he will not be able to get it when he does need it. It means a hoarding of money, a great rise in its value, or, as generally expressed, a great fall in prices. All this is enhanced by the knowledge of the limited amount of money ”

“ The minting of gold and silver into coin may, or may not, add to its value; it really transforms it into another commodity—money—and its value is thenceforth determined by the law of supply and demand as applied to money. The same is true of paper money, the low cost in the production of which is not an element in determining its value, for its production is always a monopoly. ”

“ In short, a change of money value either way is a robbery, and none the less reprehensible because it is legal and insidious. Indeed, it is perhaps more damaging in its secondary effects because of its insidiousness. An open danger may be guarded against, but the hidden danger, known to exist, but which cannot be located or prevented, only excites fear and distrust, and checks all movement.43 Nor is the damage, in its secondary effects, confined to those involved in fixed money contracts. Piracy on the seas or robbery on a highway, when common, injure not alone those who are robbed. ”

“ This is the only standard, or test, which can be applied to the exchange value of any commodity to determine its constancy or variability, and it is inherent in the very definition of exchange value.
The values of commodities may be compared to the surface of the ocean, which, vexed by winds and tides, is never at rest, every point continually rising or falling as compared with others. As some points rise others fall, yet there is a mean level which does not vary, and by comparison with which the variations of level of any particular point may be determined. ”

“ Avoiding the question of what the legitimate functions of government are,—about which there is room for a large difference of opinion,—it may be said that the plan does not contemplate the government entering the banking business as a competitor of existing banks, but rather as a regulator of them. This function it already exercises, and the popular demand is rather for an increase of such control. Furthermore, the Treasury, under the present system, is the largest holder of cash in the country, and its action is at any time of vital interest to the banks. ”

“ The legislation, therefore, of all countries is the great factor determining coin value, not alone in the country legislating, but also in all other countries using gold and silver as a basis for their system. The factor next in importance is the extent to which credit is used in the place of money. The total production of gold is so small beyond the amount used in the arts and sciences that it would require a great change in its value, and years of time, for any increased production due to higher value to affect materially the quantity of gold coin in use. ”

“ Since the values of things can never rise or fall simultaneously, every rise supposing a fall, and every fall a rise, it follows that the values of all taken together must be constant; in other words, that general values cannot change. Thus it is that we find whether any one thing has risen or fallen in value, as between one period and another, only by comparing it with all others,—in short, by its general exchange or purchasing power. ”

“ Labour is necessary to the production of all commodities, but it is not itself a commodity, nor anything which for itself is desired. It is a force, and, like every force, valuable according to the results it accomplishes. If unproductive, it has no value; if productive,15 its value varies according to the value of the commodities or utilities it creates. ”

“ Paper money is a real economy over gold and silver. Its use substitutes for those coins, that involve much labour in their production, a money of slight labour cost, which, under proper control, performs the functions of money even better than the coin. ”

“ Economic writers do not claim that either gold or silver is, or has been, of invariable value; but many of them do claim that gold is more nearly invariable than any other commodity, and that it is sufficiently so for money purposes, the changes in value being slight and covering long periods of time, so that from year to year they are almost imperceptible.82 Other writers claim that silver has been, of recent years at least, more stable in value than gold, and is therefore a better measure of value. ”

“ The condition of our monetary laws to-day is such that, except by the slow increment of gold production, which must be shared by all the world, we possess no means of meeting either the increasing demand for money that expanding population and commerce bring, or the sudden demand that a failure of credit may bring at any time. ”

“ Just as the cutting or maiming of a low form of animal life is of little damage to it, while a far less injury, relatively, would kill or seriously maim a man, so an injury to commerce, that in a primitive form would amount to little, in our modern highly developed system would cripple it greatly. Money is one of the most important parts of our industrial system,—the very life-blood, in fact,—and if, for any reason, it fails to perform its functions fully and completely, the consequences are far more disastrous than they would have been under the more primitive systems of the past. ”

“ It is evident that the control of such a system should rest with the government, and not be left to any banking institution; for a bank would be more influenced by considerations of profit than of proper control in the interests of all. The interest received by the government would be a minor consideration, the control of the volume being the main object, and the rate of interest a means merely to that end. The people, besides, would have at all times a greater confidence in notes issued directly by the government than they could have in notes issued by any bank, however strong. ”

“ Men do not hold a thing that brings no income unless they expect to profit by its rise.
As to the main point of the above quotation, certainly men accept lower prices for merchandise because of the issue between supply and demand, but the supply of money is as much involved in the calculation as the supply of merchandise. Men accept lower prices—that is less gold—for commodities in general, because gold has increased in value. ”

“ Wells' conception of value is, on which his arguments are based. He, however, seems to regard the labour that a commodity will purchase as the measure of its value, since he says, in the magazine article: "And then, in respect to the one thing that is everywhere purchased and sold for money to a greater extent than any other, namely labour, there can be no question that its price measured in gold has increased in a marked degree everywhere in the civilized world during the last quarter of a century." ”

“ The utility of a thing grows less as the quantity of it increases, and it is the utility of the last increment of supply, or the marginal utility, that determines the subjective value of the whole supply, and it is the ratios between these subjective values that determine exchange values. Air and water, for instance, have no great utility, as viewed by the older economists, except where the supply is limited ”

“ It can hardly be admitted that robbery of one large class in a community is defensible, even if it does result in a gain to another class greater than the loss to the first. It is indisputable, however, that the opposite case, where money is increasing in value, brings such disasters in its train that it would be better, if an invariable value for money could not be attained, that the variation should be a decrease rather than an increase. ”

“ As to divorcing our prices from those of other countries, the objection would have no weight. The values of any of our commodities, compared with those in other countries, would in no way be affected. No legislation can affect or determine the amount of one commodity that will exchange for another, either at home or abroad, except as it may alter the relations of supply and demand affecting them, by tariffs or taxes, or by the selection of some special one for a particular use, as is now done in the case of gold for money uses. ”

“ It must not be forgotten that what is really loaned is capital,—commodities in general,—not money; the money is only a medium for effecting the transfer, and a measure of the capital transferred. What should be returned, therefore, in repayment of a loan is the same amount of commodities in general that was borrowed,—the same value. ”

“ Is it not about time, then, to abandon the fiction that gold is either a standard of value or a medium of exchange, in any proper sense of the terms, and to take a forward step in the evolution of money by adopting a more scientific standard of value, and making the money, as a measure of value, conform thereto? ”

“ Paper money possesses the power of satisfying this need for money to the same extent that coin does, under like conditions, and it has, therefore, both subjective value and exchange value, and the latter is governed by the same law of supply and demand that operates in all cases. ”

“ No one wants money except for the purpose of exchanging it for other commodities; under modern conditions it is necessary for this purpose,—it is the indispensable requisite to the satisfaction of certain human wants. Money, therefore, possesses an indirect if not a direct subjective value which forms the basis of its exchange value. ”

“ Unless the universal money were stable in value, it would be as dishonest as the existing systems, and to make it stable would involve197 its absolute control in volume by some central power to which the various nations would delegate their authority. Such a thing is most unlikely to happen. The obstacles of national prejudice and habit are too strong to be overcome,—as will be evident from a perusal of Mr. Walter Bagehot's work, "Universal Money,"—and the advantage to be gained by it is not worth the trouble. A universal money, then, must be considered as a Utopian dream ”

“ Business will continue to be, as it always has been, a struggle for the greatest amount of commodities with the least labour; and the plea for an honest money rests not upon altruism, but upon the enlightened selfishness which teaches that honesty is the best policy, in a money system as in other things, and that it is not profitable to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. ”

“ Although there can be but one real standard of value, invariable at all times and places, yet, as before stated, any commodity may serve as a measure of value, and the great convenience subserved, by all the people of any locality or country using the same commodity instead of a number of different ones for this purpose, early led to the adoption of some one commodity in each locality as a "money" to measure values and facilitate exchanges. ”