The New Student's Reference Work/Money

Mon′ey is the name given to those substances which are used to facilitate commercial exchanges and to serve as a measure of values. Nearly all metals have been so used at some time or by some nation, but gold and silver have been found the most convenient and stable for general purposes. Among savage races beads, shells and even less valuable substances have been accepted as money, and among all civilized nations certificates of indebtedness have frequently taken its place. The value of money is, in a measure, fixed like other values by the law of supply and demand; the supply being the amount in circulation at the time and in the community in question; and the demand being the amount of commercial transactions carried on for which money is needed. But into the problem so many other elements enter, that no simple theory can be made at any time to account for all the phenomena. The use of money raises commercial transactions from mere barter to a different and higher plane. If the world had no money, the would-be seller could only sell as he might find some one with a desire also to sell some article of his own, which the first at the same time desired to obtain. But by the use of money anything can be sold or anything can be bought, at any time, by persons having the money to facilitate the transactions. The supply of gold being limited and its uses manifold, it has always been held at a much higher ratio of value than other metals, how much higher depending upon the output of the mines and the extent of the transactions requiring its use. In deals involving millions of dollars it would seem necessary to have some form of money in which the large sum might be easily transferred. In olden times money was issued by private individuals, but, in order to insure inspection and to inspire confidence, this duty and privilege has now been assumed by the state. In some countries a charge is made by the government for transforming bullion into coin; in others the metal is converted into money without expense to the owner, upon the ground that the cost is small and the benefits accruing to the state, by means of the increase of the stock of money, great. The history of coinage in the United States is of surpassing interest and full of economic lessons to the student. It is impossible to give them due attention in so compact a work as this, but it may be noted that the per capita of gold and bullion has increased from $3.23 in 1873 to $16.33 in 1904, and that of silver from $0.15 in 1873 to $8.30 in 1900. The money of all kinds in circulation in the United States has increased from $18.19 per capita in 1872 to $34.35 in 1911. The per capita circulation of gold for the world is estimated at $4.61 and of silver at $2.41. The coinage of gold and silver for the world averages, at present, about $627,700,000 a year, according to the reports made to and by the Federal government. A considerable portion of this metal coinage is used in the arts.