ABSTRACT
The monetary arrangements of community are ultimately dependent, on the morality of its members. Amongst a people altogether dishonest, every mercantile transaction must effected in coin or goods. So constantly have the ideas currency and government been associated-so universal has been the control exercised by lawgivers over monetary systems-and so completely have men come to regard this control as a matter of course, that scarcely any one seems to inquire what would result were it abolished. Therefore, during any intermediate state, in which men are neither altogether dishonest nor altogether honest, a mixed currency will exist; and the ratio of paper to coin will vary with the degree of trust individuals can place in each other. Thus, self-regulating as is a currency when let alone, laws cannot improve its arrangements, although they may, and continually do, derange them. It should he remembered, too, that even now the greater part of our paper currency is wholly unguaranteed.
