The
sudden or large increase of the metals is prevented by their scarcity and
the laborious processes necessary to produce them, and a sudden or large
decrease of them could be brought about only by some great public calamity
which should destroy them or cause them to be hoarded. But paper money,
whether made by a government or made by authorized corporations, may be
issued and put in circulation almost at will, and again be withdrawn
at will. We do not mean that the issue and withdrawal of it are wholly
unchecked, but that the checks, as the entire history of banking would seem
to prove, are comparatively inefficient and delusive. If the rise and fall
of prices, caused by the fluctuations of metallic money, are to be compared
to the rise and fall of the tides, the rise and fall of paper prices are
more like the increase and decrease of steam in a boiler, which is an
admirable agent, but demanding an incessant and scientific control. The
sea-tides, even after a tempest, will regulate themselves, because they
have all the oceans and all the rivers of the globe to draw upon; but the
steam in a boiler is a thing confined, and yet capable of immense and
destructive expansion.
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