«Принципы политической экономии, том 1»

704.Were money nothing but a measure of values in exchange, it should on that account, if on no other, have value in exchange itself, as a measure of length must necessarily have length itself. (We measure time on a clock by means of the revolution of the hands on the dial.) Again, value in exchange supposes value in use. The so-called “money of account,” such as the East Indian lac de roupies, the Portuguese reis, and the earlier English pound sterling are no imaginary magnitudes, which would disappear with the figures of our system of counting (see Hufeland, N. Grundlegung, II, 33, in reply to Struensee, Abh., III, 501); but real coin-values which can not be represented by only single pieces of coin, units of value for the most part no longer recognized by the state, but which the people still retain. See M. Park's (Travels, 27) refutation of the fable circulated by Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois, XXII, 8, that the regular standard money of the Mandingo negroes was a mere imaginary standard. Hobbes, Leviathan, 24, exhibits a very good knowledge of this subject.705.Compare P. Neri, Osservazioni, 1751, VI, 1. Lord Liverpool, Treatise on the Coins of the Realm, 1805. The person who takes money as such must always harbor the hope of being able to dispose of it again as money. Hence, such an acceptance always supposes the existence of a certain amount of commercial confidence. The savage Goahiros, between Rio de la Hacha and Maracaibo, are too “distrustful” to take anything in trade but commodities fit for the most immediate use. (Depons, Voyage dans la Terrefirme, I, 314.) Similarly in the twelfth century, the heathen Laplanders. (Arndt, Liefl. Chronik, II, 3.) Commodities which barbarians can consume immediately are objects of the first necessity, whereas more civilized people, who are in a condition to undergo greater expense, look more to the technic qualities of money, such as divisibility, capacity for transportation and durability. v. Scheel shows in a very happy manner how, as commerce increases, money comes to be, as it were, subjected to a process resembling that of distillation: first mere increase of stores for use, next preponderating values in exchange, lastly mere orders for the same possessing no independent value. Hildebrand's Jahrbb., 1866, I, 16.706.The last circumstance continues to be one of great importance for a long period of time in the frigid zones. Thus, the beaver-skin continues still to be the unit of measure of trade in much of the territory of the Hudson Bay Company. Three martens are estimated to be equal in value to one beaver, one white fox to two beavers, one black fox or a bear to four beavers, a rifle to fifteen beavers. (Ausland, 1846, No. 21.) The Esthonian word, raha, money, means in the related language of the Laplanders, fur. (Krug, Zur Münzkunde Russlands, 1805.) Concerning skin-money in the middle age of Russia, see Nestor, Schlözer's translation, III, 90. The old word kung, money, means marten. By degrees it came to pass that instead of whole skins, only two “snouts” were given or other pieces of leather about a square inch in size, which were probably stamped by the government and redeemed in whole skins at the government magazines. Hence, there is here supposed a species of assignats, and of disturbances of credit. The Mongolian conquerors would not recognize them, and they therefore became suddenly valueless. In Novgorod and Pskow, the system continued some time longer, for the reason that these places had little trade with the Mongols. In the rest of the kingdom it now became necessary to introduce silver money, and in the north to return to real squirrel and beaver skins. Karamsin, Russ. Gesch., I, 203, 385; I, 96, 191 f. Voyage de Rubruquis, in Bergeron, Voyages I, 91. Herberstein, Rer. moscov. Commentt, 58 ff. Even in 1610, a Russian military chest was captured by the enemy, and in it were found 5450 silver rubles, and 7000 fur rubles. (Karamsin, XI, 183.)707.When the Danes progressed so far as to practice agriculture, they used grain instead of cattle, in quantities corresponding to the value of one cow or one sheep, for money, to the end that their idea of a unit of measure might not become obscured. (Ravit, Beiträge, 3.)708.Homeric determination of prices in oxen. Iliad, II, 449; VI, 236; XXI, 79; XXIII, 703 ff; Odyss., I, 431. Compare, however, II, VII, 473 ff. In Draco's time, money-fines were imposed in cattle (Pollux, IX, 60 ff.), and in Athens, before Solon's time, even the metal coins were, for the most part, stamped with the figure of an ox. Plutarch, Theseus, 25. Böckh., Metr. Uuntersuch., 121 ff. Among the most ancient Romans (Cicero, de Rep., II, 35) the imposition of fines in property, the coins first stamped by Servius, boum oviumque effigie (Plin., H. N., XVIII, 3, Cassiodor., Var., VII, 32), and the words pecunia, peculium, peculatus, derived from pecus, point to something analogous. (Varro, De L. L., V, 19; De Re rust., II, 1; Cicero, De Rep., II, 9; Ovid, Fast., V, 281; Plutarch, Publicola, 11.) Old German fines in cattle, in Tacitus, Germ., 12, 21; Lex Ripuar, 36, 11; Lex Saxonum, 19. Ulfilas translates αργύριον δοῦναι (Mark, 14, 11), faihu giban. Very old German documents, of the seventh and eighth centuries, name horses as purchase-price. (Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterth., 586 f.) Otho the Great imposed cattle-fines. (Widuk Corb., II, 6.) Similarly, in King Stephen's laws of Hungary (Wachsmuth, Europäische Sitturgesch., II), in the old Irish Brehon laws (Leland; History of Ireland, 36 ff.), as well as in the Scotch collection of laws, Regiam Majestatem, of 1330. (Honard, II, 263 f, 537.) Viva pecunia of the Anglo-Saxons in the laws of William I. In ancient Sweden, all property was estimated in fä=cattle (Geijer, Schw. Gesch., I, 100), just as now, in Icelandic, fe=property. In Berne, the German vieh, cattle, is used to express commodities. Among really nomadic races this is, of course, still more the case. Thus the Kirghises use horses and sheep as money, and wolf-skins and lamb-skins for small change. (Pallas, Reise durch Russland, 1771, I, 390.) Among some of the Tartar tribes, everything is stipulated for in cows. (v. Haxthausen, Studien, II, 371.) Among the Persian nomads, sheep are used as money; or when they are held in subjection in the cities, corn, straw and wool. (Ritter, Erdkunde, VIII, 386.) Oxen in use as money among the Tscherkessens. (Klemm, Kulturgeschichte, IX, 16.) W. B. Hermann doubts, however, whether cattle were ever used as a medium of exchange. He thinks rather they were employed only as a measure of price. (Münchener Gel. Anz., 580.)709.That of vanity which presents itself among some people sooner than that of clothing.710.In Genesis, 1, 24, gold appears only as a valuable ornament. Abraham paid for his purchases in silver.711.For this reason, zinc-money is just as natural with the Malays and Chinese as iron-money with the Senegambians. (Mungo Park, Travels, 27.) And so Plutarch, Lysand., 17, may be right when he calls iron the earliest universal means of payment. In Sparta, too, where industrious efforts were made to maintain the lower stage of culture, this medium of payment was longest maintained. Compare, however, St. John, The Hellenes, III, 260 ff. The first copper coins were stamped a short time before Philip, father of Alexander the Great. (Eckhel, Doctr. Numm, I, XXX ff.) On the other hand, Italy, partly because it had mines of its own, and partly because of its intercourse with Carthage (Cyprus), had become, at a very distant period, so rich in copper that the circulation of copper, or to speak more accurately, of bronze, was naturally introduced. Compare Niebuhr, Röm. Gesch., I, 475 ff. (Aes alienum, obæratus, ærarium, æstimare.) Copper was all the more adapted to this end the more frequently it was found unmixed. It was generally used in preference to iron because of the greater facility of working it. (Hesiod., Opp., 150 f.; Lucret., V, 1285 f.) In modern nations copper money seems to have been employed only after silver money. Thus, it was not stamped in England before the time of James I. (Adam Smith, I, ch. 5), nor in Sweden before 1625. (Geijer, Schwed., Gesch., III, 56.) Money was struck from the metal of molten bells during the French Revolution!712.In Russia, between 1763 and 1788, there were 76 million rubles of gold and silver coins struck, against 54 million of copper rubles. (Hermann). On the other hand, in France, between 1727 and 1796, there were struck only 40 million francs of copper, 10 million of billon or base coin, and 3967 million of gold and silver.713.Michaelis, De Pretiis Rerum apud veteres Hebræos, 183.714.Strabo, VIII, 358. Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, found it exceedingly difficult to obtain gold. When the Spartans wished to make an offering of gold at Delphi they were obliged to have recourse to Crœsus. (Herodot., I, 69; Theopomp., in Athen, VI, 231 ff.) Aristoph., Ranae, 720, calls gold “new” in contradistinction to the “old money,” that is, silver.715.Plin., H. N., XXXIII, 13. Compare, however, Dureau de la Malle, Economie polit. des Romans, I, 69, after Varro, apud Charisium, I, 81. (Putsch.) It is certain, however, that when Italy was conquered, the Romans had introduced a circulating medium of silver, and that it was the prevailing medium; but in the time of Cæsar and Augustus, a gold circulation was the prevalent one. Yet the state treasure was deposited in gold during the period of silver circulation, because gold was, without question, better adapted to storing up and transportation.716.Muratori, Antiquitt., IV, Diss., 28.717.Henry was obliged to issue an order to the mayor and sheriffs of London, to get his gold into circulation; but he soon saw himself compelled to desist from executing his design. Edward III. was able only after a voluntary circulation of them had continued for a long time, to prohibit any one's refusing the rose-nobles. (L. Liverpool, loc. cit.)718.German., 5. Still more striking is the example cited by Herbelot, Bibliothéque Orientale (1697), 485. Rubruquis, Voyage, ch. 13. In the time of Nadir-shah, the Kurds gave, without the slightest hesitation, a pound of gold for a pound of silver or copper. (Ritter, Erdkunde, VIII, 395.)719.Recommended even by Adam Smith, ch. 5, and for Germany by F. G. Hoffmann, Drei Aufsätze über das Münzwesen, 1832. In Egypt, also, for a long time the wealthiest country of the middle ages, the circulation of gold prevailed until the twelfth century. (Macrisi, Historia Monetae Arab., cap. 3 ed., Tychsen.) Harun Alraschid's income was estimated at about 7,500 cwt. of gold. (Ritter, Erdkunde, X, 235.) Something similar related of the Carnatic, “the land of ancient emporiums.” Ritter, Erdkunde, V, 564, after Ferishta.720.Использование каури (Cypræa moneta) в Индии по эту и ту сторону Ганга, в Верхней Азии и в Южной Африке зависит от их использования в целях украшения, от их большей однородности и от редкости меди, которая в противном случае была бы лучше приспособлена для целей размена. В Калькутте 1280 каури эквивалентны примерно половине шиллинга (Мак-Каллох). Ср. К. Риттер, «Africa», 149, 324, 422, 1038; «Asien», I, 964; II, 120; III, 233, 739; IV, 53, 420; «Salin», III, 62; Ботц в «Tübinger Ztschr.». Аналогично среди рыболовного населения Северо-Западной Америки (Штейн-Ваппеус, «Handbuch», I, 352). Соль как деньги на китайско-бирманской границе (Марко Поло, 38), но особенно во внутренних районах Африки, где природа ее совсем не производит, но куда она привозится караванами из пустынь, где соль встречается в больших количествах. М. Поло («Travels», 305) установил, что текущая цена соляной плитки длиной два с половиной фута, шириной один фут два дюйма и толщиной два дюйма была равна стоимости двух фунтов стерлингов среди мандинго. В Абиссинии соляные бруски обычно имеют длину шесть дюймов, ширину три дюйма, толщину полтора дюйма, и они перевязаны железным кольцом для защиты от излома. Шестьдесят из них стоят один талер («Ausland», 1846, № 35). Рабы, используемые как деньги: Барт, «Reise», III, 338, 344. Чайные блоки в Верхней Азии и Сибири; и они выдаются китайцами монголам в качестве платы за войска (Риттер, «Asien», III, 252). В Кяхте чайный блок равен по цене одному бумажному рублю («Ausland», 1846, № 20; Тимковский, «Reise nach China», 143). Финиковые деньги в оазисе Сива (Хорнеман, «Reise», 21). Также в персидской финиковой стране, где раньше самая мелкая серебряная монета чеканилась в форме финика (Риттер, «Asien», VIII, 752, 819).

Древние мексиканцы использовали в качестве денег какао-бобы в мешках по 24 000 штук, хлопчатобумажные ткани, мелкие кусочки меди и золотой песок в перьях (Гумбольдт, «N. Espagne», IV, 11). Какао-бобы до сих пор используются там в качестве мелкой разменной монеты (Ibidem, IV, 10). На Амазонке используются восковые лепешки весом в один фунт (Смит, «Journey from Lima to Para», 1836). Среди древних жителей Рюгена — лен (Гельмольд, I, 39); и до сих пор среди исландцев — так называемый Vadhmâl. В Средние века 120 локтей Vadhmâl были равны по стоимости одной дойной корове, или шести дойным овцам, или двум с половиной унциям серебра (Лео в «Raumer's histor. Taschenbuch», 1835, 515). То, что древний северный способ оценки по Vadhmâl и коровам старше, чем по марке, показал Вильда («Gesch. des deutschen Strafrechts», I, 331). Деньги из трески, используемые исландцами, были, в силу своего большого коммерческого значения как статьи экспорта, шагом вперед по сравнению с использованием Vadhmâl. Среди кафров, помимо каури, в качестве денег используются циновки, копья, стеклянные кораллы, но особенно латунные кольца. От трехсот до четырехсот таких колец нанизываются вместе, и две такие связки равны по стоимости одной корове (Клемм, «Kulturgeschichte», III, 308, 320 f.). Слоновая кость использовалась как деньги в окрестностях португальских колоний в Африке (Марциус, «Reise», II, 670). В Логоне Денем (1822) и др. встречали куски железа как средство обращения; но, с другой стороны, Барт (1849) — мелкие полоски хлопка шириной от 2 до 3 дюймов, а для более крупных сумм — рубашки (A. R., III, 274, 297, 538). В колониях деньги такого рода сохраняются долгое время. Так, треска использовалась в Ньюфаундленде, сахар в английской Вест-Индии (Адам Смит, I, гл. 4), табак в Мэриленде и Вирджинии (Дуглас, V, 2, 389; Эбелинг, V, 435 и сл.). Последнее было связано с инспекцией и хранением табака, предназначенного для экспорта. Оплата производилась ордерами на хранящийся и проверенный табак даже в конце XVIII века. В 1618 году в Вирджинии было декретировано принудительное обращение табака под строгими штрафами (Гоудж, «History of Paper-Money and Banking in the United States», гл. 1).

721.When the caravans no longer touched at the oasis Agades, gold and silver money fell into disuse, and grain, stuffs etc. did service as instruments of circulation. (Barth, Reisen und Endeckungen, I, 144.)722.Ad. Müller says very pertinently, but in a very mystical vein, that the precious metals combine in a very high degree and yet in a very simple manner, the principal qualities in which man's greatness finds expression: rarity, flexibility, uniformity, mobility, durability and beauty. (Elemente, II, 266.) In another place, he says, the highest ideal good is God, the highest material good, gold! (III, 65.) The mysticism of gold was most highly developed among the alchymists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.723.Iron beds are worked only when they contain at least 18 per cent. of metal. Generally it is estimated that the furnace should yield 30 per cent. In the copper mines of Mansfield, Norway, Agordo and Venice, it goes as low as from one to three per cent. On the other hand, silver mines which yield 0.17 per cent. of metal are considered worth working. Lastly, gold is so rare that generally it can be extracted only from time to time by the ordinary mining processes. As a rule, men are content to gather it where nature has charged itself with its refining. The extreme limit of the working of gold appears, according to Plattner and Haussmann, at Goslar, to be reached when in 5,200,000 parts of mineral earth there is one of gold. Spite of this, however, by reason of their great ductility, the precious metals have been able to penetrate even into the meanest huts in one form or another. It has been estimated that a silver leaf may be attenuated by beating to a thickness of only 0.00001 of an inch, and a gold leaf to 0.0000035 of an inch. An ounce of gold spread on a silver thread may attain a length of 13,000 English miles. (McCulloch.)724.How easily, for instance, could leather-money, such as was used by the ancient Galls (Cassiodor., Varia, II, 32,) be increased to any desired quantity, and thus its price brought down.725.Энгель, согласно обычному тарифу на сухопутные и железнодорожные перевозки (10 и 5 пфеннигов за милю и сотые доли мили), оценивает увеличение цены следующих товаров на одну милю перевозки таможенного центнера (Zollcentner) в следующем процентном отношении к их средней стоимости:

Золото, стоимость 47 610 немецких рейхсталеров за центнер, 0,000007 по суше, 0,0000035 по железной дороге. Серебро, стоимость 3000, 0,00111 по суше, 0,00055 по железной дороге. Хлопок, стоимость 45, 0,074 по суше, 0,037 по железной дороге. Олово, стоимость 24, 0,1389 по суше, 0,0694 по железной дороге. Свинец, стоимость 8, 0,416 по суше, 0,208 по железной дороге. Железо, стоимость 2,5, 1,333 по суше, 0,666 по железной дороге. Рожь, стоимость 2, 1,666 по суше, 0,833 по железной дороге. Картофель, стоимость 0,6, 5,555 по суше, 2,777 по железной дороге. Уголь, стоимость 0,12, 27,777 по суше, 13,888 по железной дороге.

Их большой удельный вес также делает драгоценные металлы легкими для транспортировки. Так, Казо подсчитал, что данная стоимость золота в 17 222 раза легче для транспортировки, чем та же стоимость в пшенице. Но так как при одинаковом весе труд транспортировки обратно пропорционален объему, это число должно быть умножено на 26, и мы, следовательно, получаем 447 772 раза. В случае серебра отношение к пшенице составляет 1:15 554. О меди см. Шторх, «Handbuch», I, 488; Шевалье, «Cours», III, 17 и сл. 726.This, at bottom, is also true, of the various kinds of copper; only, here, complete refining is impracticable on account of the relation between the cost of production and the product-price.727.On the other hand, copper, and still more zinc, tin and lead lose much of their value in the fire. Pearls may lose their entire value by fire, and diamonds more than half of it.728.Aqua-regia, a mixture of nitric and muriatic acid, dissolves gold. Chlorine and bromine attack it. It has been noticed to vaporize at a very high temperature. A gold thread vaporizes when a strong electric current is passed through it. A small ball of gold gives off a great deal of vapor if placed between two carbon points and subjected to the action of a powerful galvanic pile. (K. F. Naumann.)729.Compare Hatchett, Experiments and Observations of the various Alloys, On the specific Gravity and comparative Weight of Gold, 1863. The French five-franc pieces wear away, on an average, in a year, 0.00016; the English crown, 0.00018; the half crown, about 0.00173; and the shilling, about 0.00456. (L. Liverpool, Treatise on the Coins. 204; M. Chevalier, Cours, III, 128 ff.) The wear from use of the south German gulden is 0.292 per 1,000. (Rau, in the Archiv. N.F.X, 256.) According to Jacob, the average wear of coin is 2.38 per 1,000. (Historical Inquiry into the Production and Consumption of the Precious Metals, ch. 23.)730.Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, I, ch. II, Digr.731.Solera, Sur les Valueurs, 1785, 271 ff.; Custodi. Half an ox, for instance, is worth half the value of a whole one only for a few well defined purposes. As to how much the value of the diamond varies with the size etc., see Dufrênoy, Traité de Minéralogie, II, 77 f. On the other hand, the separated parts of a piece of metal are very readily reduced to a whole.732.In the case of the ox, it is impossible to imagine a mark which might not be eluded by its losing flesh.733.The cost of coinage since 1849 has been ¾ of 1 per cent. in the case of silver, and in that of gold not quite 2 per 1,000. (M. Chevalier, Cours, III, 110.)734.Platinum possesses many of the properties necessary to an instrument of exchange in as high a degree as gold and silver,—great value in exchange, great specific gravity and great durability. On the other hand, its pliability as to form is very small, and therefore the cost of coining it would be high. The conversion of platinum coins into utensils, and of utensils into coin, which would contribute to the supply of money when needed, and to a diminution of that supply when the demand decreased, would be much more difficult on this account; and also because of the small degree of beauty possessed by that metal, which renders it little adapted to purposes of luxury. Under these circumstances, the rarity in nature of the metal is a great drawback; for the discovery of a new mine would create a great perturbation in prices. For this reason, the Russian platinum coins have been generally very much undervalued since 1828 in the commercial world, and the whole experiment was given up in 1845-46. Compare J. Schòn, National Œkonomie, 128 ff. Aluminum, discovered by Wöhler, and which can be prepared from argillaceous earth, is capable of manipulation in a very high degree (malléable et ductile à peu près sans limite, excessivement fusible), almost as indestructible as the precious metals, but easily distinguished from silver by a fine bluish color, which has been compared to that of tin; by its small specific gravity, from 2.5 to 2.67, and its ring like that of iron. Hence it is very doubtful whether aluminum can be made to play the part of a substitute for silver, and still more so whether it can be used for coining.735.Lingot, bullion. In India, beyond the Ganges, and in China, bars are very much used. (Sycee.) In the latter country, besides these bars, there is no coinage except that of a mixture of copper and lead, for small change. (Th. Smith, An attempt to define some of the first Principles of Political Economy, 31. Timkowski, Reise nach China, III, 366.) Concerning Brazilian trade by bars, see Spix und Martius, Reise, I, 346 f. They are stamped with the national coat of arms, the sign of the mint, the number by which registered, that of the year and of the degree of fineness. Concerning the Persian bars, the laries, see Noback, Handbuch der Munzverrh., III, Taf. 29.736.Concerning the utility of the precious metals for purposes of money, see Pliny, A.N. XXXIII, 3; Oresmius, De Mutatione Monetarum, ch. 2; Law, Sur l' Usage des Monnaies, 683 f. Daire, where we read that before the invention of money, silver had served all kinds of useful purposes, but that now it served its most important purpose, namely the making of the best material for money on many accounts. Yet Law's book, Money and Trade considered (1705) is based mainly on the idea that pieces of land are much better adapted for purposes of money than the precious metals (185)! Galliani, Della Moneta, 1750, I, 3, 4, and P. Neri, Osservazioni, 1751 ff, Cust., have very correct ideas on this subject.737.North, Discourses upon Trade, 16. The capacity of money to act as a storer of wealth has been as much over-estimated by the so called Mercantile System, as its capacity to transfer wealth has been by the so called currency-school.738.Adam Smith compares money to a large wheel, by means of which a due share of the means of subsistence and of enjoyment is distributed to each member of society. Elsewhere he compares its utility to streets and roads. (Wealth of Nations, II, ch. 2.) Hume, On Money, Pr., prefers to compare it to the oil with which the wheels of circulation are greased. Sismondi compares money to porters. (N. Principes, II, ch. 2.) “Money is to commerce what railways are to locomotion, a contrivance to diminish friction.” (J. S. Mill.) According to Schmitthenner, 455, it bears the same relation to other commodities that the written language of a people's literature does to their dialects.739.Law's views on money are, in part, excellent. Thus, for instance, he says that the debasement of the coin from financial necessity is as great a folly as it would be to try to enlarge a piece of goods too small for the purpose for which it was intended, by diminishing the length of the yard-stick. (Sur l'Usage des Monnaies, 697.) A country entirely isolated from all others could get along as well with one hundred pounds sterling as with a million. (Money and Trade, p. 88.) Elsewhere, he confounds money and capital to such a degree that he considers every increase of the amount of money in a country as an enrichment of the people, a means to give employment to the poor, to carry on manufactures etc. (Money and Trade, 23, 26 ff., 168.) A given quantity of money is capable of giving employment at most only to a certain number of men. (21.) A nation's power and wealth depend on the population and its stores of goods, these on commerce, and commerce in turn on the amount of money. (Pp. 110, 220.) The advice given, in 1848, to the National Assembly of France, but which it had the good sense to reject, to overflow all France with the so-called bons hypothécaires, is akin to Law's practical propositions. M. Chevalier, Cours, III, 8, rightly ridicules the literal construction of the words: l'argent est abondant, when merchants find it easy to obtain credit, and considers it as well grounded as it would be to infer from the maxim: l'argent est le nerf de la guerre, that rifles and bullets were made of silver.740.Adam Smith was not entirely clear, in his own mind, on this point. Thus inconsistently enough, he calls money unproductive—“dead stock,” for the reason that it leaves no material traces behind it of the goods which it has transferred from one hand to another. (II, ch. 2.) Is not the same true of trade itself? And yet Adam Smith calls trade productive. His error is doubtless a remnant of the Physiocratic doctrine, to which Smith still held. Compare Quesnay, 94, éd. Daire. Even Twiss says that money employed as money is unproductive, but that, when employed as a commodity, it is productive. (View of the Progress of Political Economy, since the sixteenth Century, 1847.) Besides it is not a peculiarity of money alone, that, after it has served the purposes of production, it comes out of the product unaltered. The same is true of quicksilver employed in amalgamation. (Hermann, 2nd edition, 302.)741.Senior, Three Lectures on the Value of Money, 1840, is, in so far, not wrong when he says that the value in exchange of the precious metals is still ultimately determined by the want of such commodities as are luxuries. This last determines to what extent the production shall be extended by the working of the poorest mines, whereas the wants of circulation can be met as well by small as large quantities of the metals.742.The good or bad result of this production depends on many different elements which may compensate on another. In California and Australia gold is to be found in large quantities, and is easily mined; but the workmen make large demands which the nature of the country renders it difficult to meet. In the Harz mines, where the cost is scarcely covered, (Lehzen, Hannover's Staatshaushalt, 1853, I, 139), the shafts are sometimes 175-½ fathoms deep, but this is made up for in a measure by the moderate demands of the workmen and their skill in mining. Among the Mandingos, the auriferous material is so rich that ⅓ per 1,000 of the weight of the sand is washed out into pure gold in ten minutes (M. Park, Journal, 53 ff., addenda, XIX), while in Europe, where the proportion is only 1/100 per 1,000, mines are still considered worth working. But then, what workmen there are there! In Peru, the burdensome height of the mines above the level of the sea and the want of combustible material more than counterbalance many favorable advantages, while in Norway the cheapness of wood compensates for a great many disadvantages. Another thing which contributes towards the uniformity of the price of the precious metals is the circumstance that the great amount of fixed capital required in the greater number of mining enterprises, postpones for a long time the working of good mines as well as the abandonment of poor ones.743.Older writers have estimated the amount of money necessary in a country at 1/5, 1/10 (Petty), 1/15, and even 1/30 of the yearly income of a people (Adam Smith, II, ch. 2.) According to Cantillon, Sur la Nature du Commerce, p. 73, it is from 1/6 to 1/10 of the annual gross production of a nation.744.Даванцати («Lezione sulle Moneta», 1588, 32 и сл., Cust.) считает, что все земные вещи, которые служат для удовлетворения потребностей людей, в силу соглашения равны по стоимости всему золоту, серебру и меди; и что части ведут себя как целое. Цена товара основана на том, что люди находят в нем столько же своего «beatitudine» (блаженства), сколько им доставляет данное количество золота и т. д. Аналогично Монтанари, который добавляет в качестве ограничения количество денег «spendibile in commercio» (расходуемых в торговле) («Della Moneta», 45, 64, Cust.). То же мнение приводит Локка к странному выводу, что, поскольку сейчас в мире в десять раз больше серебра, чем было до открытия Америки, каждая отдельная монета серебра, рассматриваемая отдельно и взятая в отношении к таким товарам, которые не изменились, стоит только одну десятую того, что она стоила тогда. Локк здесь исходит из грубого предположения, разделяемого даже Ганилем («Théorie», II, 386 и сл.), что в случае с деньгами спрос всегда, относительно говоря, одинаково силен и так же велик, как предложение, или как количество на рынке («Works», II, 23 и сл.). Далее, Монтескье, «О духе законов», XXII, 7, 8. Против, однако, см. Монтескье, ibid. XXII, 5, 6, и Юм, «On Money and on the Balance of Commerce», «Essays», II, 1752.

Юм прекрасно знал, что на цену влияют только обращающиеся деньги и обращающиеся товары, но не принял во внимание скорость обращения. Аналогично Форбонне («Eléments du Commerce», II, 212); даже Канар («Principes», гл. 6), Фихте («Geschloss. Handelstaat», 93 и сл.) и Штейн («Lehrbuch», 58). Оспорено Лоу («Trade and Money considered», 140 — работа, направленная особенно против меркантилистского эссе «Britannia languens», 1680), Мелоном («Essai politique sur le Commerce», гл. 22), Дженовези («Economia civile», 1764, II, 1, 15), Стюартом («Principles», II, гл. 28), Верри («Meditazioni», XVII, 3 и сл.), Бюшем («Geldumlauf», II, 40). Простой инвентаризации большинства частных ресурсов, которые обладают гораздо большей стоимостью в других товарах, чем в деньгах, достаточно, чтобы продемонстрировать ошибку доктрины Даванцати. Так, во Франции во времена Неккера наличные деньги в королевстве оценивались в 2 200 000 000 ливров, а средняя стоимость одного только урожая пшеницы — в 1 000 000 000 (Неккер, «Législation et Commerce des Grains», 1776, I, 215). Недавно Мишель Шевалье оценил количество денег во Франции в 3,5–4 миллиарда, в то время как официальная оценка только ее недвижимого имущества составляла более 83 миллиардов. 745.When money becomes dearer, less of it is of course needed; and when cheaper, more, for the same purpose.746.In contradistinction to presents, acts of spoliation, but especially to barter.747.The discoverer of this truth is supposed by many to be Bandini, Discorso economico, 1737, 141 f., Cust. Berkely, however, in the Querist, 1735, 477 f, writes: “A sixpence twice paid is as good as a shilling once paid.” Much earlier yet, in 1797, Boisguillebert, Détail de la France, II, 19, had the germ of this doctrine, but he confounds circulation with consumption. And Locke, Considerations, II, 13 ff., presented it in 1691 with great clearness, although he did not always remain true to his theory. Compare Quesnay, éd. Daire, 64; Cantillon, 159 ff., 382.748.If the number of annual exchanges effected by 1 dollar = u; the total number of dollars in the store of money = m; the rapidity of circulation, that is the number of exchanges effected on an average by each dollar in a year, = s: then is u = m s, s = u/m, m = u/s.749.Since good money is so easily stored away and preserved, no one is in haste to get rid of it. St. Chamans, N. Essai sur la Richesse des Nations, 122 ff.750.Among the Kurds, all the money in their camps is used for head-ornaments for their women. (K. Ritter, Erdkunde, X, 887.)751.Thus, Sir David North, Discourse on Trade, 1691, Postscr.752.Lotz, Handbuch, 377, is of opinion that even in England £100,000 employed in trade in land can scarcely effect exchanges to the amount of £1,000,000 in a year. The same sum employed for the same purpose in London, in stocks and in the trade in commodities, will effect exchanges to the amount of £160,000,000.753.Cernuschi, Mécanique de l'Échange, 1865, 132 ff.754.Thus Petty (ob. 1687) is of opinion that England needed as much money as ½ of all its ground-rents amounted to, as the ¼ of all house-rents, and 1/52 of all the wages of labor for a year; for the reason that ground-rents are paid semi-annually, house-rents quarterly, and wages weekly. (Several Essays, 179; Political Anatomy of Ireland, 116.) Locke, on the other hand, assumes 1/50 of the wages of labor, ¼ of all the revenue of land owners, and 1/20 of the amount cash money taken in in a year by merchants. Of these amounts, there should be always, at least, one-half in ready money on hand, if commerce would not be brought to a stand-still. If leases were to be paid for on short terms, a great saving of money would be possible. (Works, II, 13 ff.) Pinto, Traité du Crédit et de la Circulation, 34, calls special attention to the case of Tournay, in which the commandant, during the siege of 1745, made 7,000 florins serve him for seven weeks to pay the garrison; by borrowing that sum anew every week from the inn-keepers etc.; which they, again, had received from the soldiers.755.If all were to commit their payments to the care of the same banker, it would be possible to do with almost no money. But even now, if 100 separate merchants were obliged to keep each 3,000 dollars in their money-chests for unforseen contingencies, a banker might accomplish the same for them with 50,000 dollars, because it is not probable that the unforseen contingencies in question would occur to all at the same time.756.In the London Clearing-House, in 1839, £954,401,600 were paid by means of the use of £66,275,600 as a circulating medium, for the most part notes of the Bank of England. (Tooke, Inquiry into the Currency Principle, 27.) From May, 1868, until May, 1869, £7,068,078,000. (Statist. Journal, 1869, 229.) The New York Clearing House, in 1867, effected payments to the amount of £5,735,031,900 (Ibid., 1867, 577), and in 1868, $30,880,000,000. (Hildebrand's Jahrb., 1869, II, 168.)757.This system began in the middle of the seventeenth century. (A Discourse of Trade Coyn and Paper Credit, 64.) As early a writer as Sir J. Child, N. Discourse on Trade, 46, says, that for some time, every man who had from £50 to £100 in money, sent it to his banker, and that since that time, all the money flowed towards London and the country was deprived of it. (127 ff.) As a rule, the goldsmiths were also bankers. One such smith had at the time of the Great Fire of 1666, emitted £1,200,000 in notes. (A Discourse etc., 67.) The Bank of England, as a money center, dates from 1694. The London banks developed into intermediaries principally before the time of the French Revolution. (Thornton, Paper-Credit of Great Britain, 1802.) This remarkable institution had grown to vast dimensions even in Thornton's time, although it has been much enlarged since 1825. (Tooke, History of Prices, 152 f.) Similar conditions among almost all highly civilized peoples. Thus in Greece, compare Becker, Charicles, I, 294. Concerning a person who had 14 talents' worth of resources, 26 minæ, and therefore three per cent. in cash, see Lysias, adv. Diog., 6. In Rome, compare Polyb., XXXII, 13. Cicero, pro Font., I, 1. For Italian analogous cases, part of which may be traced back as far as the twelfth century, see Lobero, Memorie storiche della Banca de S. Georgio, 1832; or the Dutch “cassiere” Richesse de Hollande, I, 376, ff. In France an ever increasing centralization of the money-trade is to be noticed in Paris (M. Chevalier, Cours., III, 418); and now of the money-trade of Germany in Berlin.758.Compare Fullarton, On the Regulation of Currencies, 1845. Among the Dutch, the custom of using all commercial commodities as much as possible, as a basis of the circulating medium, was much earlier developed. (Child, Discourse on Trade, 65, 264 f.) In Great Britain, the aggregate amount of bills of exchange put in circulation was, in 1839, £528,000,000, which sum has been increased annually at the rate of about £24,000,000. (Tooke, Inquiry into the Currency Principle, 26.) Between 1828 and 1847, there circulated at the same moment, on an average, £79,127,000 in bills of exchange in England, and in Scotland, £17,380,000 (Athenæum, 1850, No. 175), and in Great Britain and Ireland, from £180,000,000 to £200,000,000. (Tooke, History of Prices, VI, 588,) According to Macleod, the bills of exchange and promissory notes together amounted to £500,000,000; bills of exchange, bank-notes and bank-credits, to over £600,000,000. (Elements, 12, 325.) Macleod calls the currency the sum total of all debts due by every individual in the country. (Elements, 43.)759.A case in England, in 1857, in which a house with £10,000 capital failed with liabilities amounting to £900,000. (Report of the select Committee on the Bank Act, 1858, XV.) Or where a speculator with £1,200 made purchases on credit to the amount of £80,000, and then failed with a deficit of £16,000. (Fawcett, Manual, 442 f.)760.Remarked by as early a writer as Davenant, Works, IV, 106 ff. Compare, however, II, 238. Quesnay, éd. Daire, 75 ff. Lord King, Thoughts on the Effects of the Bank Restriction, 1804, 17 ff. Exhaustively treated by Chevalier, Cours., III, 397 ff. He very much laments the fact that the customs of France cause it to need from 3½ to 4 milliards of cash money, while England does a much larger trade with 1,200 millions. (I, 207 ff.) In France, it is said that the amount of money, in 1812, was 1,500,000,000 francs(?). (Peuchet, Statistique élémentaire, 473.) In Prussia, in 1805, it was 90,000,000 thalers. (Krug, Betracht. über den Nationalwohlstand des preuss. St., I, 244.) The annual amount of production in the former country was, 7,036,000,000 francs; in the latter it was estimated at 261,000,000 thalers, so that in Prussia the relation of money to national income was, as 1:2.9; in France, as 1:4.69.761.Едва ли возможно точно определить количество денег в стране; по той причине, что, помимо предположений банкиров и т. д., нет авторитета, на который можно было бы безопасно положиться, если не считать отчетов о чеканке и выпуске бумажных денег. Информация, не менее необходимая, которую можно получить из статистики импорта и экспорта денег, переплавки монет золотых дел мастерами и т. д., никогда не может быть получена точно. В Англии в конце XVI века денежная масса оценивалась в 4 000 000 фунтов стерлингов (Юм, «History of England», гл. 44, прил.); при Карле II — в 6 000 000 фунтов стерлингов, когда население составляло 6 000 000 (Петти, «Several Essays», 179). Около 1711 года Давенант («New Dialogues», 11 и сл.) упоминает 12 000 000 фунтов стерлингов как сумму; а Андерсон («Origin of Commerce», 1659) — 16 000 000 фунтов стерлингов в 1762 году. Обращение золота незадолго до 1797 года оценивалось Роузом, по крайней мере, в 40 000 000 фунтов стерлингов; лордом Ливерпулем — в 30 000 000; Туком — только в 22 500 000 («History of Prices», V, 130 и сл.). Моро де Жоннес в 1837 году предполагал 43 500 000 фунтов стерлингов («Statistique», I, 329), а Гельферих («Schwankungen der edlen Met.», 1843, 147) — 45 000 000. Сэр Роберт Пиль оценивал сумму в 1845 году в 59 000 000 фунтов стерлингов, к которой нужно было добавить в среднем 28 000 000 фунтов стерлингов в банкнотах после вычета металлического резерва. Согласно Джевонсу, сумма британских денег сейчас составляет 80 000 000 фунтов стерлингов в золоте, 14 000 000 в серебре, 1 000 000 в меди; общая сумма, включая слитки и банкноты после вычета их металлических представителей, — 134 000 000 фунтов стерлингов («Economist», декабрь 1868 г., июль 1869 г.). Во Франции Вобан («Dîme royale», 104, Daire) оценивал наличные деньги примерно в 500 000 000 ливров, более 750 000 000 франков, с чем Вольтер («Siècle de Louis XIV», гл. 30) соглашается в том, что касается 1683 года. В 1730 году Вольтер предполагает сумму в 1 200 000 000 монет того времени. Неккер («Administration des Finances», III, 66) оценивал ее в 1784 году в 2 200 000 000 ливров; Мольен около 1806 года — в 2 300 000 000. Оценки во времена Луи-Филиппа варьировались от 2 400 000 000 до 2 500 000 000 (Палата депутатов, 13 апреля 1847 г.) и 4 000 000 000 (Бланки). Оценки 1870 года составляли, согласно Волоскому, 4 миллиарда, а согласно Бонне — от 5 до 6 миллиардов. Ср. Волоский, «L'Or et l'Argent», 383 и сл., «Enquête», 42. Германский таможенный союз, как говорят, имел в начале 1870 года (Зетбер) 480 000 000 или 520 000 000 талеров (Вайбецан) наличными деньгами.

В Вюртемберге Меммингер в 1840 г. оценил ресурсы страны в 1 600 000 000 гульденов, из которых 36 000 000 составляли наличные деньги; годовой валовой доход был оценен в 179 000 000 гульденов; таким образом, денежная масса составляла 20% от последнего и 2¼% от первых. Годовой объем продаж = 226 000 000. Следовательно, металлическая валюта должна была совершать в среднем от шести до семи оборотов в год. В курфюршестве Гессен на душу населения приходилось 4 талера, 18 серебряных грошей, 9 геллеров в металлической монете и 3 талера, 9 серебряных грошей, 4 геллера в бумажных деньгах. (Б. Гильдебранд, Statist. Mitth., 1853, 185.) Количество денег в Неаполе в 1840 г. оценивалось в 42 000 000 дукатов. (Шайола.) По оценкам, в 1830 г. Испания обладала 1 725 000 000 франков. (Баррего фон Роттенкамп, 330.) 762.Montanari, Della Moneta, 52 ff.763.David Hume's very influential essay on the balance of trade does not give expression to this error, but he certainly was the occasion of making a great many of his disciples advocate it. It is related to the error mentioned in § 123. Quesnay, 101 (Daire) saw this point in a much clearer light. So did Graumann, Gesammelte Briefe vom Gelde (1762), 12 ff.; 73 ff.764.This is seen, for instance, when paper money is issued, in times when trade is thriving, and is withdrawn when this conjuncture ceases.765.Very well elaborated by Fullarton, On the Regulation of Currencies, 71 ff., 139 ff. Compare, however, Becaria, Economica publica, IV, 4, 27. When England on the occasion of the removal of the bank restriction in 1821 and 1822, caused £9,520,759 and £5,356,788 to be stamped, this powerful demand scarcely affected the gold-agio in Paris. (M. Chevalier, Cours, III, 157.) And, on the other hand, the system of assignats, developed during the first French Revolution, on so large a scale, had no influence on the price of silver in the rest of Europe. (Lord King, Thoughts on the Bank Restriction, 1804.) And so, Tooke, History of Prices, I, 205, describes a very large increase of the medium of circulation, after which the prices of commodities remained unchanged, corn fell, colonial products rose in price, both as they had done before, and from causes inherent in the commodities themselves. During the first years of the bank restriction, 1799-1801, grain rose very rapidly in price, while all trans-Atlantic products sank. (Tooke, I, 232 ff.) The unusually large importation of wheat from January 1, 1846, to January 14, 1847, was paid in France by a decrease of the bank metallic reserve (encaisse) to the extent of 172,000,000 francs. (M. Chevalier, Cours, III, 470.) An experienced practitioner in England is of opinion that an increase of bank notes to the amount of about £5,000,000 would not raise prices nor increase the tendency to speculation, but only enlarge the deposits of the bankers. But, if on the other hand, £5,000,000, by any sudden contingency, were to be put into the hands of the working classes, this money would, for the most part, enter immediately into circulation; the price of commodities would, therefore, rise and continue to rise until that amount had come into closer fists, as it would after some time. (Tooke, III, 156 ff., II, 323.)766.Этим объясняется высокая цена золота в Дальней Азии, которая ранее была отделена от Америки — основного источника поставок драгоценных металлов — кругосветным путем, бывшим тогда обычным маршрутом мировой торговли.

Драгоценные металлы, как правило, стоят дороже в сельской местности, чем в крупных городах, и во внутренних районах, чем на морском побережье. С тех пор как в Германии значительно улучшилось состояние дорог общего пользования и т. д., разница в стоимости денег в Верхней и Нижней Германии почти исчезла. (Рау в Archiv der polit. Oek., III, 338.) 767.Happy beginning of this doctrine in Hume, On the Balance of Trade. Further, Thornton, The Paper Credit of Great Britain, ch. 11. Adam Smith, on the other hand, claims that gold and silver, because they are costly superfluities are uniformly paid most dearly for, in the richest countries. (Wealth of Nations, I, ch. 11, 3: Digr.)768.Similarly in China, and even in Upper Egypt, the China, so to speak, of antiquity! Compare Herodot., II, 112 ff; Homer, Od., IV, 354 ff. The religion of the Egyptians prescribed to them a mode of life which was scarcely practicable in foreign parts. They were systematically inspired with a horror for everything foreign. They had a strong antipathy for salt, fish and pilots. In Egyptian mythology, Osiris represents the Nile, Typhon the desert and the sea! (Plutarch, De Iside, 32.)769.The other party, of course, makes a profit also. He is in a better condition than if he wished to produce the desired commodity in his own country.770.Первый ясный зародыш этой доктрины, являющейся одним из важнейших теоретических принципов политики международной торговли, можно найти у Давида Юма в работе «О проценте»; у Кантильона в «Опыте о природе торговли», 226, 369 и сл.; у Рикардо в «Началах политической экономии», гл. 7: «Золото и серебро, будучи выбранными в качестве общего средства обращения, распределяются в результате торговой конкуренции между различными странами мира в таких пропорциях, чтобы соответствовать естественному товарообмену, который имел бы место, если бы таких металлов не существовало и торговля между странами была бы чисто меновой». (Ребениус, Oeff. Credit, I, 29 и сл.) Еще более развито это положение, в частности, Джоном Стюартом Миллем в «Элементах», 1821, III, 4, 13 и сл.; Торренсом в «Бюджете», 1844. Джон Стюарт Милль в «Очерках о некоторых нерешенных вопросах политической экономии», 1844, № 1, и в «Основаниях политической экономии», III, гл. 19, § 3, 5-е изд.: «Открытие нового направления экспортной торговли из Англии; увеличение иностранного спроса на английские товары — либо в силу естественного хода событий, либо вследствие отмены пошлин; ограничение спроса в Англии на иностранные товары путем введения импортных пошлин в Англии или экспортных пошлин в других странах; эти и все другие события подобного рода должны привести к тому, что импорт Англии, включая слитки и прочее, перестанет быть эквивалентом экспорта; и страны, принимающие ее экспорт, будут вынуждены предлагать свои товары, включая слитки, на более дешевых условиях, чтобы восстановить уравнение спроса; таким образом, Англия будет получать деньги дешевле и приобретет в целом более высокий уровень цен».

Смутно предчувствовалось Беккариа (E.P., 3, 18) и даже Галиани (Della Moneta, II, 2). Замечательная работа Сениора «Три лекции о стоимости получения денег» (1830) развивает мысль о том, что каждая страна получает отечественные и иностранные продукты по стоимости, которая снижается в той же пропорции, в какой растет производительность труда ее народа. Это, безусловно, объяснило бы, почему, возможно, сто английских рабочих дней в хлопчатобумажном производстве обмениваются на такое же количество серебра, которое производится за двести рабочих дней на мексиканских рудниках и литейных заводах. Это отнюдь не привело бы к снижению цены на драгоценные металлы по отношению к другим английским товарам, но влияние этого фактора ощущалось бы в равной степени всеми продуктами английской национальной промышленности. 771.To be found in germ in Cantillon, Nature du Commerce, 1755, 249 ff. 307. Büsch, Geldumlauf, 14. Kaufmann, Untersuchungen, I, 75 ff. Many of the doctrines of the so-called Mercantile System, of which I shall treat in my projected work on the Political Economy of Commerce, have given expression to this truth in an inexact and exaggerated way; but they were not entirely erroneous, as is supposed by the adherents of Hume and Smith. However, J. S. Mill, Principles II, ch. 19, § 2, does not fully admit the degree of the cheapness of money in England usually assumed. According to him it is wants of luxury (luxury-wants) become such through habit, that produce “the dearness of living in England.”772.Petty considers the search for a measure which could be applied both to land and labor as one of the principal problems of Political Economy. (Political Anatomy of Ireland, 62 ff.) Sir J. Steuart, Principles, III, ch. I, took the matter very easy by considering the so-called “coin of account,” for instance, “bank-money,” as an invariable value-magnitude. Compare Jacob, Grundsätze der National Œkonomie, II, 441 ff. Cazaux, Economie politique et privée, 1825, 16 ff., has a not uninteresting study on this subject; but he goes, throughout his argument, on the assumption that the rate of interest is the price of money! If the rate of interest in two countries = I and i, the prices of the same commodity = P and p, the true thing-values, V and v; then we have v: V:: i p: I P!773.Law, Trade and Money, 181. Before him, and quite correctly, Montanari, Della Moneta, I, p. 84 ff., compares the means employed of measuring one commodity by another, to the means used to estimate time in terms of space, as when it is measured by the revolutions of the hands of a clock, and again, space in terms of time.774.The solvability or capacity to pay of buyers cannot be taken into consideration here, because it is synonymous with the amount of counter-values which are to be measured.775.Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, I, ch. 5. Similarly Luther, vom Kaufhandel: Werke, ed. Walch, X, 1098 f. B. Franklin considered the labor employed in the production of wheat as the best measure of prices. (Letter to Ld. Kames: Works, ed. Sparks, VII.) As Adam Smith, so also Sismondi, Richesse commerciale, I, 371 f.; Kraus, Staatswirthschaft, I, 84,; v. Schlözer, Anfangsgründe, I, 41. Also Malthus, in the second and succeeding editions of his Principles, ch. I, 6, and Definitions, ch. 8, 9. The Measure of Value, 1823. Zachariä, Vierzig Bücher, VII, 53 f., maintains that, at least within the limits of every separate nation, the average labor-power of one man is invariable. Assuming this principle, therefore, to be true, the means of subsistence necessary to support a laborer for one work-day constitutes, indirectly, a measure of prices. Tooke, History of Prices, I, 56, says that the amount of a day's wages is always a better measure of the price of the precious metals than the price of wheat. Even in 1750, Galiani, Della Moneta, II, 2, had denied the impossibility of an entirely invariable measure of price in this world of change, but he considered man himself the least variable of measures, and in a country where slavery prevailed, slaves. He thought that the macuta of the negroes were a part of the average price of slaves. Practically, Adam Smith's proposed measure was used in the French constitution of 1791, in as much as it provided that participation in primary assemblies should depend on the participant's paying an annual tax equal to the wages of three days' work, and eligibility as an èlecteur, on the possession of an income equal in value to the wages paid for two hundred days' day-labor. Owen endeavored to base the value of the paper money in circulation in his Utopian commonwealth, not on any metal of a certain weight or stamp, but on hours of labor as the unit. (Reybaud, Réformateurs Contemporains, I, 255.)776.The wretched condition, until within a short time since, of the Irish working class, is well known; how they dwelt in mud cabins without windows, board-floors or chimneys etc., in the same apartment with their pigs; how they lived almost exclusively on potatoes, and went about in rags. These same Irish, coelum, non animum mutantes, received in North America for the coarsest kind of labor, 50 to 75 cents wages, besides wheat bread and meat three times a day, coffee and sugar twice a day, butter once, and seven or eight glasses of whisky or brandy. (M. Chevalier, Lettres sur l'Amérique du Nord, I, 159.)777.Thus in Mauritius, the immigration of the coolies has produced a decrease of negro wages, but an increase of negro industry. In the Barbadoes, the negroes are more industrious and their wages lower than in Jamaica. The wages of good workmen, as for instance during the commercial crisis in Manchester, often sink, while the wages of bad workmen rise; as, for example, in a village through which a railroad is made to pass. Compare Lauderdale Inquiry, ch. 1; Sartorius, Abhandlungen, 1806, I, 16 ff.; Lotz, Revision, I, 99 ff.; M. Chevalier, Cours, III, 88 f.778.Besides the passages cited in § 107, compare also Harris, On Money and Coins, II, 1757 f.; Jacob also preceded Ricardo. See the German translation of Say, II, 435, 507.779.The introduction of the words “the socially necessary time of labor” into the formulæ does not make the measure any more practical for political economists or for socialists.780.Cantillon, who reduces all the cost of production to land and labor, considers the “at par” between these two to be this: that the labor of the meanest slave corresponds to the quantity of land which the owner is obliged to employ for his support, and the support of the slave and of the children who are to take his place. (Nature du Commerce, 42.) The Physiocrates thought that the internal (innere) value of two commodities stood in the same relation to each other as the area of land directly or indirectly necessary to their production. Schlettwein, Grundfeste der Staaten, 1792, 230.781.The so-called Sachwerth (thing-value, real-value) of Hermann, St. Untersuchungen, 101 ff. Thus Poulett Scrope recommended a “tabular standard,” to be officially established and renewed from time to time, to serve as an anchor to those persons who wished permanently to fix their money in such a manner as to make it exchangeable for an equal value in things. (Principles of Political Economy, 1833, 406.) Something of this kind was tried for 50 commodities, between 1833 and 1837, by Porter, Progress of the Nation, 1st ed., II, 236 ff., then for 40 commodities by Jevons in the Statistical Journal, 1865. Of course, all commodities of a given price are not equally important in this respect. Thus, for instance, a fluctuation in the price of diamonds would have no effect on the thing-value or real-value of a day's wages, but it certainly would on the thing-value of a princely income. There are some excellent remarks on this very important subject in Lowe's work, On the Actual Condition of England, chs. 8 and 9. The controversy carried on between Jevons, A serious Fall in the Value of Gold, and its social Effects, 1863; Statist. Journal, 1865; and Laspeyres, Hildebrand's Jahrb., 1864, 81 ff.; 1871, I, 296 ff; in which the former recommends the geometric mean of the relative prices of separate commodities at different points of time, in order to calculate the average relative price: and the latter, as usual, the arithmetical mean, is very thoroughly reviewed and criticised by Drobisch, who shows that neither of these methods is sufficient, but that the quantity of every separate commodity must also be taken into account, for which he furnishes practical formulæ. (Math. phys. Berichte der K. Sächs. Gesellsch., 1871, I, 143 ff, 416 ff.) It is certain that a fixed income in money could maintain its real value or thing-value (Sachwerth) just as little if the cwt. of bread rose by as many dollars as the cwt. of pepper had fallen; as if the increasing price of bread depended on a decreasing price of pepper.782.Senior, Outlines, 187. In addition to this, we may draw from the thing-value of a day's wages a right conclusion as to the economic condition of the majority of the people; and assuming the customary division of the national wealth, also as to the degree, to which the people have subjected the forces of nature to their service.783.Ricardo, ch. 22, refuted, indeed, only the view that an increase in the wages of labor produced by the higher prices of corn, would necessarily make all goods or products of labor, correspondingly dearer.784.Compare § 103. In Paris, in 1817, the setier of wheat cost March 5, 55½ francs; April 2, 57 fr.; April 23, 60 fr.; May 14, 63 fr.; May 21, 66 fr.; May 28, 75 fr.; June 4, 82 fr.; June 11, 92 fr. (Tooke, History of Prices, II, 17.)785.Locke, 98. When Condillac asserts that wheat is the best measure of prices, he adds, when free trade in wheat obtains. (Commerce et Gouvernement, 1, 23.) Fichte, on the other hand, while advocating the despotic guidance of all trade by the state, would employ wheat as the fundamental measure of prices. (Geschl. Handelstaat, 47 ff.) That grain does not afford a good measure of prices in very highly cultivated nations nor in barbaric ones, see Hermann, II, Aufl., 451.786.The average price must be based on the prices of a great many years, since crops vary not only from year to year in price, but from decade to decade. See Roscher, Nationalökonomik des Ackerbaues, § 152, and Roscher, Kornhandel und Theuerungspolitik, 47 ff. Great wars are wont to disturb agriculture in such a manner that the price of corn is very much increased by them. Hence, it is not unfrequently possible to use the prices of grain as a species of barometer to determine the real pressure of a war upon the economic life of a people. Judging by this standard, England suffered much less from the War of the Roses in the fifteenth century, than from the civil wars in the seventeenth; and less than France from the religious wars of the sixteenth. The war year 1631-2, in which Gustavus Adolphus and the emperors had to spare the country, must have been far less oppressive for Saxony than the later Swedish campaigns. Roscher, in the Tübinger Zeitschrift, 1857, 471.787.Большинство стран проходят через следующие последовательные периоды в своей торговле зерном: в первом преобладает экспорт; во втором наблюдается равновесие; в третьем преобладает импорт. (М. Шевалье, III, 74 и сл.) Ср. Тацит, «Анналы», XII, 43. Исключая два самых дорогих и два самых дешевых года, положение в прусских провинциях было следующим:

Во всем королевстве цена ржи с 1816 по 1837 г. составляла 40 серебряных грошей. Население на квадратную милю — 2776. В Пруссии — 32,2 серебряных гроша и 1827. В Позене — 34,3 серебряных гроша и 2180. В Бранденбурге, Померании — 38,4 серебряных гроша и 2093. В Саксонии — 40,3 серебряных гроша и 2366. В Силезии — 38,0 серебряных грошей и 3612. В Вестфалии — 47,7 серебряных грошей и 3600. В Рейнской провинции — 49,4 серебряных гроша и 5078.