The development of the mines of precious metals during the past year and the prospective development of them for years to come are gratifying in their results.  Could but one-half of the gold extracted from the mines be retained at home, our advance toward specie payments would be rapid.

To increase our exports sufficient currency is required to keep all the industries of the country employed.  Without this national as well as individual bankruptcy must ensue.  Undue inflation, on the other hand, while it might give temporary relief, would only lead to inflation of prices, the impossibility of competing in our own markets for the products of home skill and labor, and repeated renewals of present experiences.  Elasticity to our circulating medium, therefore, and just enough of it to transact the legitimate business of the country and to keep all industries employed, is what is most to be desired.  The exact medium is specie, the recognized medium of exchange the world over.  That obtained, we shall have a currency of an exact degree of elasticity.  If there be too much of it for the legitimate purposes of trade and commerce, it will flow out of the country.  If too little, the reverse will result.  To hold what we have and to appreciate our currency to that standard is the problem deserving of the most serious consideration of Congress.

The experience of the present panic has proven that the currency of the country, based, as it is, upon the credit of the country, is the best that has ever been devised.  Usually in times of such trials currency has become worthless, or so much depreciated in value as to inflate the values of all the necessaries of life as compared with the currency.  Everyone holding it has been anxious to dispose of it on any terms.  Now we witness the reverse.  Holders of currency hoard it as they did gold in former experiences of a like nature.

It is patent to the most casual observer that much more currency, or money, is required to transact the legitimate trade of the country during the fall and winter months, when the vast crops are being removed, than during the balance of the year.  With our present system the amount in the country remains the same throughout the entire year, resulting in an accumulation of all the surplus capital of the country in a few centers when not employed in the moving of crops, tempted there by the offer of interest on call loans.  Interest being paid, this surplus capital must earn this interest paid with a profit.  Being subject to “call,” it can not be loaned, only in part at best, to the merchant or manufacturer for a fixed term.  Hence, no matter how much currency there might be in the country, it would be absorbed, prices keeping pace with the volume, and panics, stringency, and disasters would ever be recurring with the autumn.  Elasticity in our monetary system, therefore, is the object to be attained first, and next to that, as far as possible, a prevention of the use of other people’s