CONTENTS OF NO. IV., VOL. XLII. ARTICLES. ABT. PAGE I. REMARKS ON THE VALUE OF MONEY; AND ON THE PRINCIPLES WHICH REGULATE ITS DEMAND AND SUPPLY. By WM. BROWN, of Cote des Neiges, Canada..... II. COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. No. LXXIV. DETROIT, MICHIGAN. The Trade of Detroit-Unlike Cincinnati-Location of Detroit-City Gas-Population-Families-Valuation-Increase of Dwellings-Business Circle-Flour-Its Destination-Manufactures-Groceries-Imports and Exports-Lake Trade-Vessels Passing Detroit-Custom-house Clearances-Vessels and Tonnage Owned-Seamen's Wages-Lake Superior Trade-Copper Shipment-Vessels Passing Canal --Merchandise Passing St. Mary's Canal- Par Funds--Land Warrants-Rates of Exchange-Harvests-Flour-Milling-Receipts and Shipments of Flour-Local Flour Trade-Prices for the Year-Receipts and Shipments of Wheat-Prices-Corn from Illinois-Receipts and Shipments-Price-Crop of Oats-Receipts and ShipmentsCourse of Market Price-Lumber Region-Motive-Mills-Lumber Receipts-Ditto Shipments-Course of Business-Stock-Receipts-Credits-Minerals-Iron-CopperTons Shipped...... 403 422 III. VALUATION OF LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES. By Prof. C. F. McCay, of Georgia 435 IV. PROTECTION IN FRANCE... 439 V. CONGRESSIONAL MOVEMENT IN THE CURRENCY QUESTION. By CHARLES H. CARROLL, Merchant, of Massachusetts... 443 VI. COMMERCIAL AND STATISTICAL REVIEW OF THE THREE PRESIDENCIES OF INDIA. BY THOMAS DALTON, Jr., of New York....... 447 JOURNAL OF MERCANTILE LAW. Damages for Collision..... What Constitutes Delivery.. COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW. Business of the Month-Western Trade-Breadstuffs-Crops in Europe-Stock in the United States-Low Prices for Farmers-Low Wages-South Large Means-Northern Strike-Lower Rates for Money-Table of Interest-Imports-Cotton Exports-High Value-Specie and Cotton-Specie Movement-Table-Increased Supply of Coin-Assay-Office-Mint-Treasury Notes -Stock Operations-Banks-Reported Clearings-Exchange-Table of Bills-Sterling-Future Cotton Bills-Balance in Favor of the South-Diminished Purchases of Goods -Accumulation of Funds-More Speculation-Manufactures-Cotton Used-Table-Cottons Imported-Spinners-Cotton Crop-Prices-Prospects..... 452 453 456-463 ΡΑΘΕ The City of Paris.. JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. France and England-Debt.. Banking in Kentucky City Weekly Bank Returns-Banks of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Pittsburg, St. Louis, Providence 464 465 467 California State Debt. 468 Iowa Finances.-The Savings Banks of England 469 New Silver Mines.-Currency in Austria... Sandwich Islands Property and Tax Assessment for 1859 470 470 French Banks.-Banks of Missouri, Jan. 1, 1860.. 471 Savings Banks in Rhode Island.-Valuation of Maine.. 472 472 Wool Imported into Boston.-Trade of Guelph, C. W.-Tobacco Trade... Virginia Flour Trade.-Commerce of Calais, Me.. Fixed and Flashing Light on Huapilacuy Point, Coast of Chile... Beacon Light near Calais-Dover Straits.-Harbor of Galveston, Coast of Texas Alteration of Lights on Blackwater Bank, Ireland COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS. Railroad System in Canada-Its Effects upon American Interests... 484 484 485 485 486 Tobacco Restrictions in France.-St. John's, Newfoundland.-Cuba Consular Certificates...... 487 Insurance in Massachusetts.-Statistics of Life Insurance JOURNAL OF INSURANCE. POSTAL DEPARTMENT. Scene at the Dead-letter Office-Vendue of Unclaimed Articles...... JOURNAL OF MINING, MANUFACTURES, AND ART. 488 491 Illinois Coal... The Cotton Trade of France-Its Commencement and Progress.. 492 494 495 496 498 499 500 502 Directions from a Parent to his Son on his Entering into Mercantile Business.. HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. APRIL, 1860. Art. I. REMARKS ON THE VALUE OF MONEY: AND ON THE PRINCIPLES WHICH REGULATE ITS DEMAND AND SUPPLY. I PROPOSE in this, my fourth anti-usury communication to Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, to offer a few remarks on the value of money and on the principles which regulate its demand and supply. I trust a little consideration will enable me to divest the subject of those false ideas which have been so long associated with it, and which have been but too industriously instilled into the public mind. A great deal of the mischief which has arisen in the world has been caused by a false estimate of the value of gold. Considered as a currency, it is really valuable only in proportion as it can purchase the necessaries and commodities of life. Gold has little or no intrinsic value; and if it has, in itself, so little real value, then a great proportion of that which we see attached to it must be imaginary value. Wheat has a real intrinsic value as one of the great necessaries of life, and is perhaps the most valuable of all articles. Sugar, again, has not so great a value as wheat, and it partakes more of the nature of a luxury. Diamonds and other jewelry have a still more remote value. Most of our financial evils may be traced to the large amount of traffic in those things which cannot be considered as part of the necessaries of life; in the same way as so vast an amount of moral evil and physical suffering can at once be traced to the manufacture and traffic of articles which are positively deleterious to the human constitution. A large part of our population are engaged in the traffic in articles of luxury alone. No article is more extensively traded in than gold. And yet the precious metal has hardly any value apart from its use as a medium of exchange. Take away that use, and it becomes the most valueless of substances. This value, again, arises principally from its rarity. Were it more common it would be less valuable. It seems impossible to trace, by any historical records, the origin of that value which we now see so universally attached to gold. Probably, the first use to which it was applied was the manufacture of ornaments. Every reader of his Bible knows that golden ear-rings and bracelets, and jewels of silver and gold, constituted part of the presents sent by Abraham to his future daughter-in-law, Rebekah. Gold, from its beauty, would immediately attract attention-its rarity would render it valuable -its ductility would present great facility of workmanship. Its employment in the arts would thus be the basis of its employment in commerce. The idea of value once attached to it, the other qualities which it possesses would very soon introduce it as a medium of exchange. In the days of Abraham, silver was a "current money with the merchant." In the narration of the Patriarch's wealth, we find silver and gold prominently mentioned. From the prolific mines of the land of Havilab, on the shores of the Persian Gulf, the first supplies of gold appear to have been drawn. The mines of Western Asia appear at one time to have been exceedingly productive, rivaling those of Australia and California in modern times. It is stated that the Romans employed at one time not less than 40,000 men in the mines of Nova Carthago in Spain. But whatever be the manner in which the idea of the value of gold was first suggested to mankind, it is obvious that that idea is now, and has long been, a purely hereditary one. This is proved by the fact that the toys and playthings of the child have a far larger share in his desires and affections than any number of the glittering coins. But he places a different value upon these coins when he has learned by observation and experience that they may be made to administer at once and directly to his childish propensities and wants. That value once learned, every little child becomes a little merchant, and freely circulates his money, confident in every purchase which he makes, and proud of every addition to his stock in trade. For many years, the little man makes the money completely subservient to the gratification of his desires. But the desire of accumulation is universal, and the attachment to money becomes, as it were, a second nature. As people grow older, their desires for wealth increase; and the idea of the value of gold in its ability to purchase something else, is very frequently transferred to the gold itself; and occasionally an individual is found who makes the transference so complete that he dies with a bag of the much-loved metal under his head-like the miser of Horace "Afraid of starving ere he reach'd his grave." The desire of wealth, in such a case, becomes the master principle of the soul, overthrowing moral distinctions, overpowering all the noble principles and faculties of the mind, and leading often to the higher degrees of dishonesty and fraud. The child is thus often wiser than the man of age. But this false and overpowering idea of the value of gold is not confined only to the miser. It is the tendency of all our natures to attach, more or less, the same false value to gold. We are ever apt, in this matter, to undergo some sort of intellectual aberration, and we are led, unconsciously, to transfer to the gold itself a kind of value which it does not possess. Hence arises that spirit of accumulation so diametrically opposed to the precepts of the gospel. And the man who has not been led by that gospel to measure this world, with all its wealth and honors, at its real worth, becomes more and more in danger of exalting the golden god still higher and higher on the throne of his affections, till at last all these affections yield to its sovereign power; and such a man, locking himself up at last in his own exclusiveness, becomes, in a manner, dead to all the impressions of the world around him, and even to the finer sensibilities of his own nature. By the same hereditary process, have the current notions of the value of gold and silver as media of exchange been transferred to bank bills or notes. By those who have never taken the trouble to inquire into the soundness of a paper currency, the bank notes which they have been accustomed to see circulating freely for years amongst them are taken without a moment's hesitation. It seems, for example, to be a matter of indifference to a person in Canada whether or not many of the banks in Great Britain were but recently able to redeem their notes; or whether or not the whole banking system of the United States lately came to a dead lock for months together. Mankind are ever prone to put off the evil day. And the hallucination in this matter is so complete and the delusion so perfect, that they never think that a day of repudiation may be in store for their cherished currency-that currency which they have never seen depreciated, and to which they therefore attach a substantial value. In utter vanity of thought and imbecility of reasoning, they consider that they are, financially speaking, isolated from the rest of the world, and never dream that a match applied on the other side of the Atlantic may explode the mine over which they so soundly sleep. Mankind are very quick to perceive that the possession of wealth gives to its owner power, influence, and respectability. Hence arises a strong desire to obtain possession of what is seen to administer at once and directly to the acquisition of these worshipful qualifications. Nevertheless, the pursuit of wealth, for its own sake, we must class amongst the meaner desires of our nature. The offspring of selfishness and pride, it can never be elevated to take rank as one of those things which contribute to the primary wants of man. It is to such a source as I have now indicated that we must trace that prevalent desire to obtain possession, by borrowing, of the wealth of others, upon which to commence business. Let me not be mistaken here. All desire to have money; and that desire, within certain limits and pursued by proper means, is perfectly lawful. I refer to the demand for money, or usury, or borrowed money, and it is vain to attempt to place its origin in any other source. Perhaps my young readers about to commence business may indignantly reject such an opinion. It is not likely that their ideas will undergo any change till they experience the truth of that proverb, "the borrower is servant to the lender," a truth to which mostly every man of business will freely and at once subscribe. Although I have, in the preceding observations, adhered to the old fashioned notions and definitions with regard to the intrinsic value or properties of money, I must, nevertheless, freely confess that long and patient thought over the merits of these definitions have not left a single satisfactory impression on my mind. Writers on the subjects of Capital and Currency do not seem to be fully agreed as to what really constitutes "capital." In the North British Review, for February, 1858, it is treated of in the following terms: "The basis of the idea of 'capital' appears to us to be, the conception |