A Treatise on Money and Essays on Monetary Problems by Joseph Shield Nicholson

Author:Joseph Shield Nicholson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Macmillan and co.
Published: 1895-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

THE MOEALITY OF BI-METALLISM

ADDRESS TO THE GLASGOW PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETYy ECONOMIC SECTION, MA Y16, 1887

The advocates of bi-metallism have to defend a position which is open to attack on many sides. In the first place, they are told that the system is theoretically impossible and contradictory, and the heavy artillery of distinguished authority is dragged out from ancient arsenals. But it often happens in currency as in war, and many other interesting matters, that a position which is proved to be untenable according to all the recognised rules, is, as a matter of fact, impregnable.

Then when it is reluctantly admitted that the bimetallic theory is possible, the practical man delivers an assault, and the artillery has to stop fire for fear of injuring its own side. The practical man rushes to close quarters and lays about him with hard facts drawn from his own particular calling; but owing to the divergence of interests in this world, there are in most controversies practical men on both sides. Thus the debtor hammers the creditor, and the exporter the importer; the consumer raises his battle-cry of cheap-

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ness, the producer answers him with profit, and the working man drowns both with a cry for regularity of employment.

When the battle of the standards has thus reached a condition of most admired disorder, and both sides think they are getting the victory, a peacemaker in the garb of a moralist appears on the scene. He shows in the usual way that there is much to be said on both sides, that mono-metallism inflicts some hardships, and that bi-metallism might confer some benefits. But a peacemaker is generally a person of strong opinions, and the conclusion of the sermon is the sanctity of contracts and the horrors of disturbance. Thus, in the end, bi-metallism is declared to be not only theoretically absurd and practically impossible, but morally most wicked in general and dishonest in particular.

It is to this last aspect of the question alone that I wish to direct your attention, and, accordingly, I must ask you to grant, for the sake of argument, some large admissions. I shall assume that bi-metallism at a fixed ratio would be quite possible if the great commercial nations entered into an agreement, and not only that it is theoretically possible, but that it is actually practicable, and that after the necessary stages of agitation, Eoyal Commission, Parliament, diplomacy, conference, convention, and ratification, it becomes an accomplished fact. Having thus cleared the ground, I invite you to take up the position of the future historian of British civilisation, and to declare whether this monetary revolution was or was not justified.

The first charge brought by the moralist against bi-metallism is, that it is an interference with contracts ; and it is gratifying to find, in spite of the large inroads made by Governments on the field of contract, that this objection is still considered perfectly valid if it can be established. The contention is, at any rate so far as this country

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