It must be evident that if the people of one country have incurred debts to the people of another country expressed in foreign monetary units, nothing but such foreign money will satisfy the claim, and to procure it the debtors must ship some commodity in exchange for it. What this commodity will be, will depend on which is the cheapest--which one the debtor, everything considered, will have to give the least of in exchange for the necessary foreign money,--it may be claims against foreign merchants, or bankers, in the shape of drafts or bills of exchange, or it may be gold, if that is cheaper, or it may be wheat, or cotton, or any other commodity, but it will always be that which the debtor can purchase cheapest. If it be gold, it will be because the debtor can purchase enough gold to exchange for the required amount of foreign money for less of his own money (including transportation and other charges) than he can purchase a sufficient amount of any other commodity, and not because the foreign money is based on gold. In short, the gold differs in no way from any other commodity in such transactions; it is exchanged for the foreign money, which alone can satisfy the debt, precisely as any other commodity. That both gold and silver may be a convenience at times in international trade is not denied; but they are not a necessity, and their convenience for this purpose is in no way enhanced by their coinage or by their use as a domestic money. CHAPTER VII. MONEY IN THE UNITED STATES. Turning from the consideration of money systems in general to the particular case presented in our own country, we find a most curious system--if, indeed, anything bearing so little evidence of rational adaptation to its purpose is entitled to that name. The unit of the system is the gold dollar, containing 25.8 grains of standard gold, nine-tenths fine, coined in five, ten, and twenty dollar pieces. There is also a silver dollar, containing 412-1/2 grains of standard silver, nine-tenths fine, the ratio between the two being 15.988 grains of silver to one of gold. The gold is coined free, in any amount presented. The silver coinage has been restricted for many years, and is now entirely stopped. The silver dollar, however, circulates at par with gold, though its bullion value is only about fifty cents measured in gold, which is the real basis of the system. In addition to the coin, and circulating on a par with it, are a number and variety of issues of paper money. (1) United States notes (or greenbacks),--secured only by the credit of the government, except that there is held in the Treasury about 30 per cent. of the amount of these notes in gold as a redemption fund.