MONEY AND CREDIT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 25 March 1936, Page 2

MONEY AND CREDIT

(To the Editor) Sir, —Under the heading “Money and Credit” in last nights “Mail,” reference is made to the “muddled writers” who send contributions to newspapers on this subject. Mr J. S. Barton, S.M., is quoted from “The New Zealand Accountants’ Journal” as follows: “The word ‘money’ is used in these discussions in at least three distinct senses, and one man in a single letter will use these terms in their different meanings promiscuously and without any allowance for adaption of the differences.” * Mr Barton implies that money has a multiplicity of meanings and can be many things. In my correspondence I have definitely stated that money is only one thing—“a primrose on the river’s brim, and it was nothing more”! Money is just money; a convenient mechanism for exchanging wealth. Previous to the invention of money this wealth was exchanged directly—meat for fish, wheat for clothing, and so on. Money was invented as a more convenient method of exchange. All sorts of things have been used tor money, cowrie shells, stones, pieces of metal, and even playing cards were used in Quebec. Later gold became the recognised substance for money. O’Duffy says of gold: “Since gold of itself is a valuable commodity people have come to think that money must be valuable in itself. They have forgotten the time function of money which is to facilitate, the exchange of goods, and imagine that money is the only real wealth. This idea, is false, as we are not fed or clothed with gold. If all the gold in the world were suddenly spirited away, our farms and our factories would still supply our needs; we should simply have to invent a new medium of exchange.” Thus, Sir, your readers will agree money is only money whether it be gold, cheques. Treasury notes or the Ace of Spades. Therefore, for “muddled writers,” commend me to Mr Barton, who compares money in its three senses with three 'qualities of “lightness”—lightness of weight, lightness of colour, and lightness of texture. The S.M. ventures to say that “some of these newspaper correspondents five years ago had never allowed their minds to advert to any aspect of the subject of currency or exchange.” If this is so, all I can say is they have learned and unlearned quite a lot in five years. It is said that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Evidently this is also the route to his cerebrum. When Mr Barton tries to thicken the smoke screen behind which interested parties try to hide “money” he did not make a very happy Scriptural quotation in “Men love darkness rather than light Iwnuse their deeds are evil.”—l am, etc., IKONA MALI. Nelson, 24th March .