eagles of various weights jangling together in confusion in the market place. Let him rather banish gold coins entirely from his mind and think of a dollar as simply a certain number of grains of gold bullion in the vaults of the United States Treasury—that quantity changing from time to time but always definite and specific at any particular time; and let him remember that, in actual circulation, this gold bullion is represented by paper yellowbacks.
By thus assuming no actual gold coin to circulate but all gold to circulate only in the form of paper representatives, it would be possible to vary at will the weight of the gold dollar without any such annoyance or complication as would arise from the existence of coins. The Government would simply vary the quantity of gold bullion which it would exchange for a paper dollar,—the quantity it would give or take at a given time.
As readily as a grocer can vary the amount of sugar which he will give for a dollar the Government could vary the amount of gold it would give or take for a dollar. If to-day the Government were giving 25.8 grains of gold bullion to the jeweler or exporter for each dollar of certificates[1] he pays in, next month it might give 26 grains or only 24 grains, the increases or decreases being made, of course, for the purpose of compensating
- ↑ The wording on the certificates would, of course, need to be slightly changed. They could no longer be properly called warehouse receipts, nor would they, on the other hand, be exactly analogous to Government notes; they would be intermediate between the two. They might be described as "gold bullion dollar certificates." They would be redeemable at any time in the then official weight of the gold dollar—a variable weight but constant worth, instead of a constant weight but variable worth, as at present. For the proposed wording of the new certificate, see Appendix I, §10.
