In view of these considerations, the attempt--so often made in discussing the question of money--to set class against class, to lead labour to consider capital as its enemy, to embitter the relations between borrower and lender, and between the banks and the public, is greatly to be deplored. Competitors in a sense these different classes doubtless are, but so far as an honest money is concerned all are partners; all would be gainers by it and none losers. Past experience does not lead us to expect that men will generally become unselfish and altruistic in their motives in the near future. Business will continue to be, as it always has been, a struggle for the greatest amount of commodities with the least labour; and the plea for an honest money rests not upon altruism, but upon the enlightened selfishness which teaches that honesty is the best policy, in a money system as in other things, and that it is not profitable to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. INDEX. Aldrich Report, the, 83. Bagehot, Walter, quoted, 54, 122, 197. Bank-notes, national, proposal for increasing issue of, 146. Bi-metallism, 46, 67. Böhm-Bawerk, von, quoted, 4, 7. Capital and money, distinction between, 104. Coin. _See_ Money. Coin and paper money, 22. Cost of production, 10. Credit, money forms of, 92. Currency, an elastic. _See_ Money. Decline in prices, 90, 101. Definition of money, 21. Definition of value, 1. Demand and supply. _See_ Supply and Demand. Dollar, gold and silver, 125. _Economist_, London, on foreign prices, 83, 84, 86. Ely, Prof. R. T., quoted, 32, 47. Employers of labour, 102, 199. _Encyclopædia Britannica_ on money, 35. Exchange, money as a medium of. _See_ Money. Existing monetary systems, 51. Foreign commerce, 112-124; balance of trade, from an economic standpoint, a misnomer, 114; international trade, _ib._ France, monetary system of, changed to a gold basis, 70. Functions and requirements of money, 25. Germany, monetary system of, changed to a gold basis, 70. Gold. _See_ Money and Monetary Systems. Gold production between the years 1850-57 in Australia and California, 90. Gold-standard arguments criticised, 98; Mr. D. A. Wells' fallacy of deeming labour a test of value, 100; threefold division of the community into labourers, employers of labour, and money loaners, 102; distinction between capital and money, 107. _See_ Stability of Gold and Silver Values. Gold standard, the, 54. Greenbacks, 126, 129, 146. Gresham's law, 57, 59, 65, 67, 149. Inconvertible paper, 22, 76. India, English commission on the depression of trade in, 119; silver currency in, 96. Invariable money value, necessity for, 28, 40. Jevons, Professor, quoted, 25, 27, 154.