Money: Speech of Hon. John P. Jones, of Nevada, on the Free Coinage of Silver; in the United States Senate, May 12 and 13, 1890Jones, John P. (John Percival)
History
Money: Speech of Hon. John P. Jones, of Nevada, on the Free Coinage of Silver; in the United States Senate, May 12 and 13, 1890
Jones, John P. (John Percival)
Silver question -- Speeches in Congress
As value resides in human estimation, it will frequently vary as to the
same object. An intending purchaser may have one notion of the value of
an article, an intending seller another. Money, therefore, is a measure
of value in the sense that it is a measure of the average human
judgment--from which results price. As Mr. McCulloch says, no means
known to science or art should be left untried to keep the value of
money unchanging.
When a man promises to deliver money or makes any time contract, he
makes a mental calculation as to what amount of property, or of the
product of his labor, will enable him to meet his engagement. If he be a
farmer, raising wheat, there passes through his mind the sacrifice and
toil necessary to raise it, and the quantity he can raise; if a cotton
manufacturer the cost of spindles, of looms, and steam-engines; the
wages of labor and interest on plant.
I knew a cotton manufacturer who wanted $10,000. His business was good.
He was sober, honest, and industrious; had a thorough knowledge of his
trade; managed his employés himself, and took the greatest pains to
conduct his business on the strictest business principles. He wanted the
money to make some improvements in his factory. He knew how many
spindles and looms he had; how much could be done with a pound of
cotton, how much it cost, and how much each spindle and loom would do.
He said to a capitalist, "I know all about cotton spinning and weaving,
and do not know anything about this thing called money, but I want
$10,000 of it." Said he, "My cloth is worth 10 cents a yard; it sells at
that rate in unlimited quantities by wholesale; nobody can make it any
cheaper; but I am not working a gold mine; I am not manufacturing
legal-tender paper money, and the only way I can get money is to swap my
cotton cloth for it. I will give you my note for 100,000 yards of cotton
cloth, which will be equal to $10,000, and will pay 2 inches a yard each
year as interest."
This was satisfactory to the capitalist, and the note was made, signed,
and delivered accordingly, and the improvements were made in the
factory.
During the year everything went smoothly; the spindles and looms worked
well, repairs to machinery were light; cotton had been bought at proper
rates; and no improved processes had been discovered or applied in the
production of cotton-cloth. There was no hitch in any direction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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