Exchange

“ But when two young minds are striking on each other, the sparks fly. It was not long, then, before I believed myself to have mastered the essential principles of Free Exchange— principles simple in themselves, though not easy to state exactly. ”

“ The purpose of this chapter is to show how, starting from the general nature of wants and the nature of goods, we can arrive at an explanation of the exchange of goods. Recognizing the simple but fundamental fact stated at the opening of this paragraph, an exchange may be seen to be a rational and a logical result when men are living together in society. ”

“ In a refined state of society, when money represents the value of the exchanges, the exchange between the abundance beyond the wants of [Pg 15] the possessor of one commodity and of another is just as real as the barter of wheat for wine. ”

“ But the word "exchange" as usually employed means an exchange of goods between persons. It is objective exchange, and when the word is used without modification, it is to be understood in the objective sense. ”

“ All exchange is a compromise. We are told of certain social conditions in which it is accounted as knightly to rob and to fight for the sake of robbery; while exchange and purchase are regarded in the same society as undignified and vulgar. The psychological explanation of this situation is to be found partly in the fact of the element of compromise in exchange, the factors of withdrawal and renunciation which make exchange the opposite pole to all struggle and conquest. Every exchange presupposes that values and interest have assumed an objective character. ”

“ Each of us is endowed with some faculty, ware, or possession which he is constantly exchanging for other things. We trade time, talent, service, goods, acres, produce, counsel, experience, ideals. The world is in reality a Bourse of Exchange. ”

“ I heard it proposed lately that two young men should travel together over the world, the one without money, earning his means as he went, before the mast and behind the plow, the other carrying a bill of exchange in his pocket. ”

“ Exchange enables the shoemaker to produce shoes, the tailor to make coats, the carpenter to build houses, the farmer to raise grain, the weaver to make cloth, the doctor to heal disease; and at the same time brings to each one of them a pair of shoes, a coat, a house, a barrel of flour, a cut of cloth, and such medical attendance as he needs. Civilization rests on exchange. ”

“ For the purpose of a definite idea of just what exchange is, let us remember that exchange includes every written promise or order to pay money that is used to substitute one credit for another credit, or to make one debt pay another debt. ”

“ This is no more than an expansion of its simplest signification, that of an exchange of goods, the bringing of them from the seller to the buyer, however vast the range now comprehended by the term in the progress of society. ”

“ The question of exchange is more especially to be considered, as it is not deemed best to materially deplete our present limited supply of breech-loaders, even of inferior models, to extent below the present quantity. ”

“ Now therefore let the learned Lawyer fall cheerfully to his books again, for the Merchant cannot put him down, if he have no more skill than is in his Exchange. Are these such admirable feats, when they may be so easily know and done in the course of trade? ”

“ Fourthly, by this it may plainly appear to your Highness, as the exchange is the thing that eats out all princes, to the whole destruction of their common weal, if it be not substantially looked unto, so likewise the exchange is the chief and richest [Pg 418] thing only above all other, to restore your Majesty and your realm to fine gold and silver, and is the mean that makes all foreign commodities and your own commodities with all kind of victuals good cheap, and likewise keeps your fine gold and silver within your realm. ”

“ It is, indeed, the beginning and the end of all civilization. It is itself civilization, partial or complete. It is the last and the most important condition in the production of useful commodities,—
3. That there shall be exchanges.
There can be no exchanges without accumulation—there can be no accumulation without labour. Exchange is that step beyond the constant labour and the partial accumulation of the lower animals, which makes man the lord of the world. ”

“ We've got something you haven't got, and you've got something we haven't got. Why shouldn't we be appreciative toward each other, and make our exchange with mutual respect as we do with trade commodities? ”

“ It is difficult to conceive of any human transaction that cannot be resolved, in some form or other, into the idea of an [208] exchange. All that is essential in production are,” (sic, only italics mine,) “directly evolved from this source.”
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“Man has therefore been defined to be an animal that exchanges. ”

“ In our opinion exchange properly speaking,—true exchange and free from the alloy of any foreign element whatsoever, has never been anything but barter; and as soon as the system of barter was left and that of money entered upon, the exchange system was rather abandoned for another system quite different, than that one form of exchange was simply substituted for another form of exchange. ”

“ An escape from this embarrassment lies in the discovery of a universal measure of exchange value and medium of exchange—money. Money is the means of adjustment which renders traffic between men independent of individual requirements. ”

“ When it is remembered that in its origin money is only an instrument to facilitate exchange—we might even say to render it possible—it follows that from its earliest to its latest form the ruling influence is the need of society for the best mechanism of exchange. ”

“ And, as the number of people who want things of all sorts must manifestly be greater than the number of people who want the particular thing, whatever it may be that we have to exchange, any difficulty there may be in making our exchange will generally attend the first part of it; for, in exchanging anything for money, I must find some one who wants my particular thing, while in exchanging money for a commodity, any one who wants any commodity or service will be willing to take my money. ”

“ There's No living in This World without an Exchange of Civil Offices, and the Need we have One of Another, goes a Great Way toward the Making of us Love One Another. How is this Amity, and Communication to be entertain'd now, but by the Commerce of Giving and Receiving? ”

“ Exchange rejoices over every man and woman and child, who so puts his head and heart and hand into his own peculiar product as to outstrip all others in that one line in point of ease and excellence, and so be able to offer a service at once better and cheaper than any one else can offer it then and there ”

“ Consequently, if by objects which have value in exchange we mean objects which are susceptible of being exchanged, we shall include such a mass of the mental and physical qualities of mankind as to make the term wealth convey no tolerably distinct and useful meaning. ”

“ By universal and free exchange,--that is, by each person being permitted to exchange what he wants least for what he wants most,--an absolutely perfect system of economy of resources is established; the whole world being included in the arrangement. ”

“ Is the exchange never to stop? Is no warehouse satisfied with what it has? English, which until now you judged a soft concordant language, shows here its range and mastery of epithet. And all about, moving and jostling the boxes, are men with hooks. ”

“ Touching the standard of the English money, that you complain of is kept low by reason of the free exchange, we can say nothing but that our exchanges are made with a mutual consent between merchant and merchant, and that the abundance of the deliverers or of the takers make the exchange rise or fall ”

“ In modern societies, where the business of production is carried on to meet the demands of the market, for exchange, these use values appear as exchange values. Exchange value is the proportion in which use values of different kinds exchange for each other. ”

“ That is the object of this little book—‌to cover the ground of foreign exchange, but in such a way as to make the subject interesting and its treatment readable and comprehensible to the man without technical knowledge. Foreign exchange is no easy subject to understand; there are few important subjects which are. ”

“ There is always this psychological, or, if you will, artistic element in exchange.
In pure Economics exchange is exactly balanced by the respective advantages of the exchangers; just as in pure dynamics you have the parallelogram of forces. ”

“ The following operation is only one of ten thousand in which exchange men are continually engaged, but is a representative transaction and one on which a good deal of the business in the arbitration of exchange is based. ”

“ But it is not till you enquire for some article that the gentleman, now certain that you mean to trade, will rise without bustle from his seat, show you his goods, or state the price he means to sell at — with a polite yet careless air, which plainly says, "If it suits you, we make an exchange." ”

“ Other causes of less importance—‌interest and profits on American capital invested in Europe, for instance—‌are responsible for the existence of some quantity of exchange, but the great bulk of it originates from one of the four sources above set forth. ”

“ The whole business of exchange and barter, of division of labour and occupation, — the co-existence of those distinct and heterogeneous ingredients which are requisite to constitute the political communion — the supply of the most essential wants of the citizens — is all founded upon the continuance and the expectation of this assured requital for acts done. ”

“ In the everyday life of the exchange market, political developments of an unfavorable character and war rumors are about the most frequent and potent influences toward the condition of uneasiness above referred to. ”

“ Throughout his life he maintained the 'predominance of exchange,' exposed the 'tricks of the exchangers,' and urged that exchanges should be settled on the principle of 'par pro pan, value for value.' Naturally, therefore, he sought to revive the staple system, and appealed to the government to put down the exchangers. ”

“ P. deposits his pot, and waits awhile, there will come out two pots, both full of broth; and if Mr. K. deposits his kettle, and waits awhile, there will come out two kettles, both full of fish! That is the principle of Interest.
However, for the present, observe simply the conclusion of our social science expositor, that “the art of exchange is the only proper mode of obtaining things from one another;” ”

“ Exchange in relation to money affairs denotes a species of barter not of goods but of the value of goods, a payment in one place being exchanged for a payment in another place. The popular statement of the theory of exchange represents four principals involved in two transactions. A and B are two persons residing in one place different from the domicile of C and D; A sells goods to C ”

“ It pledges and promises little and seldom; exchanges only so far as exchange is necessary for life. The store belongs to the people in whose hands it is found, and money is little needed either as an expression of right, or practical means of division and exchange. ”

“ Their employments were different, that they might trade and exchange with one another, as there was occasion. The members of the body politic have need one of another; and mutual love is helped by mutual commerce. ”

“ There might, indeed, on some theories, be a conceivably good architecture for Exchanges—that is to say, if there were any heroism in the fact or deed of exchange which might be typically carved on the outside of your building. ”

“ To support life it is necessary to have access to the fruits of the earth, either directly—as in the case of the agriculturist—or indirectly, and through a process of exchange as the price of work done in other directions. ”

“ The exchange of wares that comes with division of labor multiplies the interrelations of men by compelling the flaker, weaver or skin dresser to communicate with others and to come to an understanding with them. As exchange develops and the distances between exchangers increases, some men can profitably charge themselves with the carrying of messages or the conveyance of goods, and thus set up a communicating and transporting system. ”

“ Since the desires of all men, which the efforts of other men can satisfy through exchange, are indefinite in number and unlimited in degree, there is no end of human Satisfactions to be reached along this road of reciprocal trade ”

“ Though the kinds of possible exchanges are thus very few, the exchanges themselves in one or other of these six forms and in all of them are innumerable on every business day in every civilized country of the globe. ”

“ Many economic writers have characterized the processes of exchange as "non-productive" activities, nevertheless, under the present economic order they lie closer to the seat of power than any other single group of activities. ”