GOLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7004, 28 July 1884, Page 4

GOLD.

(Chambers' Journal.)

The fate of Midas, whose touch transformed even his food into gold, testifies that the ancients felt the limits, while they adbfed^tte virtues, of the wonderful metal. Since the morning of the world gold has been the chief object of desire of mankind, and it is highly s«Ur mate ffc* a V6ry Pontage would still make the same selection as the son of ™2i il 8 ' T ere ! h5 opportunity afforded, even with the knowledge of all it implied. 'From the days of Midas until now this gold, Blight and yellow, hard and cold, Molten, graven, hammered, and rolled • Heavy to get, and light to hold, ' has been

Hoarded, bartered, bought and sold, B*olcD, borrowed, squandered, doled • T^h D« cl by lho youn?'but hu?ged by the old T« tie very verge of the churchi ard mould No other material object has retained in a like degree the united devotion of man in all ages iorms. it may bo rocksalt, as in Abyssinia - formeriv^ V-ad- 3'- a3 fc Afrioa ' ™S££ as tormerly m Virguiia. Gold is greater than money, because gold fodudes ■ mon?y, ml makes money poasible. Upon gold rests tha whole superstructure of, tPhe wealth'of the woild. Lst us consider for a moment why this is, and how this is. And first of all, U; fs desirable because it is scarce. Abundance begets cheapness, and rarity the reverse That « most valuable which involves the greate t »*!'? a^«e. ,Butwem 8 i tno StaZo 3t° Conclu3ion that wero gold to become as plentiful as iron and be as easily obtained, it would recede to thif" of a f h^ an mtri? sic valuo 8"Pe«or to that of all ether metals becauso it haa k 9morn Petf.?° SSessed fa?nono oth£. T t ndTstrucfe l tbr a?- y ' and i 3 P^«tically SpM?™? . * excavations and bchliemann's discoveries in. Greece hava shown.. It may be melted and remelted S n?L TF-" 1 w^ hJ- Itresists the action of acids, but is readily fusible. It is so malleable that agram of it may be beaten out to cover 56 square inches with leaves used in gilding and in other ways innumerable-only the twLtveight thousand two-hundredth of an ™eh L thickness. It is so ductile that a grain oHtmiy be drawn out m wire 500 ft in length. The fc f lta T ?PPearance excals that of all *™Lr tl % T suPßremincnt claims were pfis of tbh y fi th9- Je, WS in th« goWen breast' plates of the priests, as they are by the he/eate? "xF* h°, PSS of a £olde° <S wS™ V W? signalise the sacrednesa of the S,t' t! 9, mth JJ* [So d ring. P/ofessors of, what Carlyle called tho "dismal science" h£L * u?jre(luently expressed a contempt for gold; but in doing so, they have regarded it merely as the correlative of money As money, according to them, is merely a counter with little or no intrinsic value, there* IT 5ui ba. 8 no intrinsic value beyond its h»iHPt^ lty m t]? e ?rts- Johß Stuart Mill dnnM^ W6re the ?"PPiy °f gold suddenly nnlJ « ? one IJ w? uld he the richer, for the only effect would be to double the price of WVS" St™l«y Jevons went so far as to say that the gold produced in Australia and rf,?i!n rma t re,pr ues6nt,? d T l' a great aad almost dead loss of labour." He held that "gold is one oi the last things which can be considered wealth in itself," and that "it is only becauso the cheapening of gold renders it more available for gilding or for plate, for purposes of and use other than money. ij WJ? can -b9 said t0 ga'n directly from gold discoveries." Another writer, Bonamv Price asserts that it is a "wonderful apostesy a "fallacy full of emptiness and absurdity, to suppose that ■ gold is precious except as a tool. We might multiply quota! tons all tending to show that while a certain class of philosophers admit a -limited v*lue in gold as a metal, they olaim- that it loaeß the value immediately it is transformed: into a com. 1 his contention is not tenable in reason It is directly against tho concentrated faith of the ages. Gold is desirablefor tne sake of its own special virtues, and it becomes additionally valuable when employed aa tlie medium of exchange among nations. It is because of the universal desire of nations to possess it that it enjoys its supremacy as money. By-its comparative indestructibility it commands and enjoys the proud privilege of being the universal standard of value of the world. It is therefore elevated instead of being degraded by the impress of the mint atamjv for to its - own intrinsic value is added that of biing tho passport of nations. This is a dignity attained by no othor metal. It has been urged that the Government guarantee of a solvent nation stamped upon a piece of tin, or wood, or paper will form a counter quite as valuable aa gold tor a medium of exchange. So it might, but the circulation would only be within certain i! m j I r- S J cotQh bank-note is passed from" band to hand with "even more confidence than a sovereign 7 -in Scotland. But take one to England aud observe the difficulty, and often impossibility, of changing it. The pound-note is worth a sovereign, but its circulating value is local. Even with a Bank of England note, travellers on the Continent occasionally experience some difficulty in effecting a satisfactory exchange. But is there a country in the - most rudimentary condition of commerce where an English sovereign, or a French napoleon, or an American eagle cannot be at at once exchanged at the price of solid gold ?