3. When in the aurelia state, the negroes crushed them between their fingers. ' 4. Some patches of cotton, where the caterpillars were very thick and the birds and turkeys could not get access to them, were destroyed. 5. The tops of the plants, and the ends of all the tender and luxuriant branches, where the eggs of the butterfly are usually deposited, were cut off. By these means, resolutely pursued, although at one time the prospect of checking the depredation was almost cheerless, not the slightest injury to the field was sustained." J. D. B. DE Bow, Esq. MEXICAN COTTON SEED. Dear Sir-I beg to trouble you or some of your subscribers for a little information; I ask not from idle curiosity, but with a desire of gaining knowledge, and probably of placing on record information of much value. Those planters who remember the old black or green seed varieties of cotton grown some twenty years ago, or longer, can fully appreciate the advantage that we now enjoy from the improved or Mexican seed. We have only to call to mind that the old description of cotton yielded about one-fourth or 25 lbs. of cotton wool to the 100 lbs. of seed cotton; that the quantity gathered per day was at least one-fourth less, and the yield per acre one or two hundred pounds less. The improved seed can hardly be regarded as of less importance than the introduction of the gin-stand. It is nothing, then, but fit and proper that the genius and energy that directed the improvement should receive the due reward. There are now many persons who know all about the present variety-I mean the Mexican now in use. They can give the information. If left a few years longer without inquiry, the facts will have passed away. I beg to give what I learned, some ten or twelve years since, from intelligent planters, when on a visit to Natchez, as well as in more recent inquiries. It was said that Mr. Pierce Noland, living near Rodney, Mississippi,* had by dint of selection, so improved the seed, as to cause a demand for it, at even 50 to 100 cents per bushel, when other seed was not sought for at any price, and that the merit was due only to his intelligence and energy. Recently, I have understood that a Mr. Price had a good variety of seed, which had in all probability been imported from Mexico, but had been suffered to mix or run out; and that some young planter, probably Mr. Eli Montgomery, had got from Mr. Price some of his seed, and began to select in 1823; this being about the earliest step to the improvement. As evidence that this was so, Mr. Noland and others, I think, purchased seed of Mr. M. A Mr. Bolls, who had a gin on the road, and ginned for the public, will know about these particulars if he be now alive; if not, others must be, who are aware, as my informant states, that Mr. Bolls was in the habit of exhibiting the cotton from this seed, as being remarkable for the quantity of lint and its beautiful white appearance. I should like to know, and presume there are many who are equally curious in matters that tend to throw light on our improvements, what was the original seed from which selections were made; who introduced these seed, and above all, who made the improvement that has added millions to the wealth and resources of our whole country. I do not think that the introduction of Mexican seed alone conferred the benefit; I have planted seed direct from Mexico, and though continuing to do so for several years, I could not discover that they equaled our Mexican, although I believe the Mexican seed were the forerunners, and were the parents of the present Mexican or Petit Gulf seed. Yours, with great respect, M. W. PHILLIPS. * Mr. P. Noland has since removed to Warren County, not far from Vicksburg. 680 THE COMMERCIAL REVIEW. Volume II. NOVEMBER, 1846. No. 5. Art. I.-COINS, WEIGHTS, AND MEASURES. IN the first place, and to dissipate any erroneous impressions which may be formed from such a juxtaposition of terms as exists in our title, it is distinctly affirmed that we have fancied no kind of analogy beyond the most remote, between the coinage, currency, or money of a country, deemed to represent its wealth, and the system of weights and measures applied to the division of that wealth. The terms are classed as of kindred commercial importance, and the sole purpose of the present essay is to present upon each such general principles, facts, and statistics, as will lead to its clear and correct elucidation. That there are difficulties and perplexities to be encountered, will not be denied, since statesmen and philosophers in every age have found them, and libraries now groan under the material which they have accumulated. But nevertheless, that there has been a greater degree of complexness imagined than really exists, we shall endeavor to show. And first, then, of coinage, currency, or money. It is a very common mode of investigation, first taught by John Locke, to refer back to the origin of society, and of things, and mark their progress thence. We adopt that mode. Certainly there was a period when the man himself was the producer and manufacturer of every article of his consumption-when he did not, as it were, go out of himself-when the germs of every art existed in him, without an idea of their distribution. With few wants, how easy were their gratification. A unit then, an independent existence, man so remained until the development of the social principle sent him into society. In this rude stage, little was there above brute nature. There will be as little again if they are to be heard, whose doctrines, legitimately extended, lead us back to this, by destroying at "one fell swoop" all the precious results of a distribution of labor; results which the Roman poet might well have introduced in his eloquent passage on the progress of society: Inde casas postquam, ac pelles ignemque pararunt Castaque privatæ veneris connubia læta But remove man a single degree from this. Let him perceive how dissimilarly God has endowed us with faculties; how much superior in certain respects a neighbor is, and how much inferior in others. Let him mark, too, higher skill in pointing an arrow or a rock than he possesses, or vainly emulates. If his own experience be of service, let him learn that expertness is the offspring of practice, and that practice is a thing of time, toil, and labor, which cannot be given by the same man to all things in the space of a brief life. These will be the first great lessons of political economy. They will break up the unities of which we have spoken-they will amalgamate them, and men henceforward will be found reciprocally employed in each other's service. Society and civilization, however, are things of slow growth, and we have but arrived at the origin of barter, which will not long suffice. The hunter may find it very well to part with a portion of his venison for a brace of ducks, or a handful of fish, but might it not happen that the proprietor of the ducks, or the fisherman, is already supplied with venison sufficient for his wants? What is there for the hunter in this contingency? He must return disappointed or seize by main force what has been denied his appetite, which we are at liberty to suppose him physically incapable of doing; or finally. and what would be by far the most prudent course, he must acquire something desired and not possessed, or not possessed in sufficient quantities by those with whom he would act, and which they would regard as an equivalent for their property. Now the fisherman may be often supposed in the same condition as the hunter. How shall these men then meet each other at all times upon common ground and enjoy their mutual products? The most obvious reflection which occurs here, is that some one commodity of universal requisition and demand must be sought, to conduct the exchanges, which have become too complicated to be conducted in kind. For this each man will barter his wares, because assured that other wares, of whatever description, or at whatever season, may be bartered in turn for it. Is there such a commodity? Among the Mexicans, when the Spaniards invaded their country, it was discovered that grains of cacao were gaining circulation, as a medium of exchange. The grounds of this preference can only be traced in the fact that cacao was a scarce commodity, and one in general estimation. If a mere arbitrary choice were absurdly supposed, why not then as well a choice of pebbles or shells? The early Greeks were wont, as every classical scholar will remember, to estimate the value of their commodities by the number of oxen which they had cost, or for which they could be exchanged. Thus in Homer we find the valuation of the arms of Diomedes and Glaucus: For Diomed's brass arms of mean device, * Iliad VI. It may be a question after all, however, whether these were real bonâ fide "beeves," for the Greeks had a coin termed bous, ox, from the fact of an ox being stamped upon it, as we learn, from the classics, though coinage in Greece can hardly be deemed as ancient as the wars of Troy. It is a little remarkable, too, that the Latins should have called their coins pecunia, from pecus, a herd or flock stamped upon them. Their word moneta, money, being derived, it is thought, from monco, to mark; that is, to mark the fineness or weight. It would be easy enough to advance in this manner illustrations from other countries. Thus the Carthaginians adopted leather, which some suppose a kind of substitute for bank-notes, as the precious metals were abundant enough with them; the Lacedemonians adopted iron, and the Romans copper, the Abyssinians salt, the Britons of the time of Cæsar iron and brass, the Saxons live stock, the Maldive islanders cowries, and of later day we find codfish adopted at Newfoundland, tobacco and rice in early Virginia and Carolina, and even pork, horses, &c., in some of the Western States, and the Chinese now coin their money of copper only, and regard gold and silver as articles of mere merchandise. In each of the cases above stated, the commodity so dignified as the medium of conducting the exchanges of all others, became in every sense the money of the country, without having lost anything of its character as merchandise. It may have appreciated in value somewhat from the circumstance, but it was impossible at the same time to change its nature. At the present day the whole civilized world have agreed upon certain commodities, which shall be considered among them by consent, and from their intrinsic value and usefulness, as equivalents, in due proportions, for all others—these commodities are gold and silver. Will any man in his senses maintain that these metals have become by this act in any other sense money, than the Greek live oxen, the Roman brazen as, or the Abyssinian salt? And yet this has been done. We have gained something when we come to regard money as a mere commodity-"the commodity exchanged most frequently for every other," and like these others worth only as much as it will sell for in the markets of the world. There is nothing to exempt it from the fluctuations of trade, and to entitle it a standard of value, would be the same as to affirm that a thing may be fixed and fluctuating at the same time. A cubic inch of water may be a standard, for we shall find it of the same absolute weight at the equator as at the pole, now as a thousand years before the deluge.* Regarding money as a commodity regulated by the laws of supply and demand, and by all the other laws which regulate other commodities, we discover at once the absurdity, as well as the wickedness of all attempts to elevate or depress its value on the mere mandate of an emperor or of a parliament. Canute, the Dane, commanded as wisely the sea to stay its advances. But we discover more, and what will be of great practical value to us, that money, or gold and silver, may be in excess in a country, from some temporary cause, and in commercial phraseology "glut the market," just as we see it glutted occasionally by cotton or any other staple. The same disease will require the same remedy, and the nation will at times be gaining wealth by the exportation of its specie or money, or in the reverse, losing wealth by its absurd retention. They are mistaken, then, who regard the precious metals as the Adam Smith remarks: The price of gold and silver, when the accidental discovery of more abundant mines does not keep it down, as it naturally rises with the wealth of every country, so it is at all times naturally higher in a rich than in a poor country. Gold and silver, like all other commodities, seek the market where the best price is given for them. Wealth of Nations. vol. I., p. 295. mere representatives of wealth. They are wealth themselves, and no arm of power can cause them for any time to be received for a fraction beyond their intrinsic value. Otherwise, we should not so much look to the material as to the "superscription," or stamp. They are equally mistaken who would regard money as a measure of value or wealth; for how can that be a measure which has no fixed value itself, and how can values have a fixed measure, when they are merely relative terms? Were money the representative and measure of wealth, it would follow that the representative and measure must be precisely equal in value to the thing represented and measured, and that the sum total of all the money in any country would exactly express the wealth of that country. Now this is sheerly absurd, since we know that the proportion which money bears to other commodities is but a mere item. Of no other use than to conduct exchanges, how can it at all apply to that immense proportion of every nation's wealth which is consumed without exchanging, or which is exchanged in kind, or finally, exchanged by mere transfers from one side of a ledger to the other? We shall see this more particularly hereafter. Can all money be regarded as on the same par as the precious metals, for instance bank notes ? Have they intrinsic value? Clearly not. They are then merely representatives, they answer for something else; are not commodities, not values, not wealth, not money in any sense that gold and silver have come to be regarded money, or that salt or oxen became money in other days. It is their representative character which gives them value, and we are yet to learn that that character would be changed in kind though it might be in degree, if these bank notes represented lands or sugar instead of specie; or that their character would not sink altogether and be lost, were it found, as it too often fatally is, that they represent nothing at all. Paper bills are the growth of a system of credit, and have much to do with the confidence which man has in his fellowman. Where they do not represent commodities, dollar for dollar, they furnish facilities for making a little wealth control a great deal, and have their convenience and economy, perhaps, in the operations of commerce; which, sometimes, however, they most grievously If gold and silver be wealth, are they productive wealth? Mr. Tucker considered that the expense of metallic currency, including the wear and tear of metals, the cost of coinage and interest on the value of material, amounted to 5 per cent. on the whole capital of New York. He, however, included paper as well as metals in the currency. Mr. Webster, in 1838, estimated the whole currency of the Union at $130,000,000; of which, perhaps, $70,000,000 was specie (Tucker on Money and Banks, p. 58). The metallic currency of Britain was at the same period $150,000,000. The following table showing the proportion of gold and silver to other currency, and the condition of the banks in 1838, will be found of interest: Table showing the Number and Condition of all the Banks in the United States, on the 1st January, 1838, aocording to Mr. Woodbury's Report. PRINCIPAL DEBTS. PRINCIPAL ASSETS. Specie. Loans, &c. 18,307,54411,412,8032,902,930...... 93,575,135 213..... .81,169,776........ 29,631,248.31,999,806.9,937,187......127,740,077 Local Divisions. No. of Banks. Capital. Notes in Circulation. Deposits. 8932,111,573..... .20,156,891... 9,707,821..... 94. 92.. 6,768,067 2,617,253 · 829 · · · · · · · 317,636,778. . . . . . . 116,138,910-84,691,184 .6,145,384...... 55,337,073 4,984,616122,305,066 7,443,103... 40,492,662 3,770,842. 45,181,854 35,184,112. . . . .484,631,867 |