exchanges is kept, and as such the intrinsic value of the material is of no consequence whatever, except as a guaranty of the authenticity of the counters. If such authenticity could be attained by any other means than the intrinsic value of the materials, the object of these counters would be equally well attained. The use of mere lumps of gold and silver, in whatever shape, in exchange for other commodities, is simply barbarous barter, not civilized commerce. The use of a well-authenticated paper currency would render possible a much needed increase in the volume of the world's currency. The great amelioration in the condition of the people of Europe which took place in the sixteenth, and was still taking place in the seventeenth, century, was attributed by every philosophical man to the increase of the volume of currency by the influx of gold and silver from America. Buyers, whether of merchandise or human labor, grumbled at the rising prices, but a gleam of prosperity was taking the place of the night of abject poverty among the common people. It was not the natural utility of gold and silver that did the good work, for as metals they minister little to man's needs. It was their artificial value as
