So that mints were kept up at the two latter places merely to manufacture a very small amount of coin, and the reason assigned was, that gold was produced in the neighborhood.
Looking at the cost of production at these different places, we find that at Philadelphia it was only forty-two hundredths per cent,—at New Orleans, one and eight hundredths per cent,—at Charlotte, three and fifty-five hundredths per cent,—at Dahlonega, three and thirteen hundredths per cent. But, great as was the economy at Philadelphia, compared with that at the other mints, we find that at the Paris mint the same production costs one half less.
If we look further at the mints of Charlotte and Dahlonega, it is easy to see how every consideration of economy was against them. With a single Munich press in the mint at Charlotte, the whole annual coinage there would have been accomplished in thirty-five hours; and with a similar press at Dahlonega, the whole annual coinage there would have been accomplished in less than twenty-eight hours! Experience shows that one Munich press will coin in a day of ten hours, allowing one sixth of the time for stoppages and accidents, thirty thousand pieces. Of course the coinage at these two places must have been at an expense much beyond that of Philadelphia. It would be more economical for the Treasury to pay the cost of transporting the gold from these places to Philadelphia. And doubtless this would be done, if the question of economy were alone involved.
I refer to these instances as illustrations of the policy already adopted. I need not say that they do not commend themselves to my judgment, especially when it is considered that in all probability the coinage at these mints, besides being expensive, was also of an inferior quality.
But the vast products of gold in distant California presented the question in a new form. Unexpectedly, the early prodigies of Mexico and Peru were renewed. Private persons were suddenly enriched. Gold was turned up like clods of earth, or washed from sands deposited by mountain torrents. Where gold so abounded, the currency of the country was naturally in this metal, which thus performed its double function of merchandise and money. Should all this treasure be sent far away to Philadelphia for coinage? The answer of reason, convenience, and commerce was clearly against such enforced transportation. A mint became a necessity. Even assuming that the coinage could be executed with more economy and perfection at Philadelphia, it is evident that the local interests of California were too important to be neglected. The mint was established, and during the last year gold has been coined there to the amount of $17,510,960, while the smaller amount of $3,340,931 was the sum-total of gold coinage during the same time at Philadelphia.
It is now proposed to create another mint in Oregon, and the reasons for it are similar to those which prevailed in the case of California. The region is fruitful in gold, if not to the same extent as California, yet so much so as to require similar facilities for coinage. It seems that the amount received at three private assay-offices in the city of Portland, from January 15th to October 20th of the last year, reached $2,486,496. Compare this sum with the paltry yield at Charlotte or Dahlonega, where mints were established and maintained down to the Rebellion. The mines of Peru have been proverbial for richness; but the sum-total of their product in 1858 was only $6,000,000. That of Chile was $5,000,000; and that of Bolivia was only $2,000,000,—being less than the product of Oregon for nine months.
Here, again, the considerations of science, so strong in favor of a single mint, seem to lose their applicability, or rather they fail in presence of other considerations not to be neglected. Sir, we cannot forget in legislation that it is no narrow territory that comes within our jurisdiction, but that it is a vast region, washed by two great oceans and separated by intervening mountains. A rule which may be proper in a country like France becomes inapplicable to a country so vast in space. If all our States were huddled together on a single seaboard, perhaps a single mint might suffice. In such a case economy and perfection of coinage might be exclusively consulted. But the interests of business on the Pacific coast must not be sacrificed even to these considerations. Spain still has mints at Madrid and Seville, although at the latter place the coinage is chiefly confined to copper; but in former days, while Mexico was a Spanish province, there was a Spanish mint there,—for the same reason, I suppose, that a mint is now proposed in Oregon.
The consideration from distance alone cannot be disregarded. Oregon is more than five thousand miles from Philadelphia, and seven hundred miles from San Francisco. It is impossible to legislate for such immense spaces as you would legislate for a European kingdom, where every part is within easy distance of the metropolis.
In England a single mint transacts the business of that commercial country. But I need not remind you that all its immense commerce is conducted within a small territory. In Holland, also, there is only a single mint,—although during the days of the Republic there was a mint in each province. Afterwards these were abandoned, and one mint for the whole kingdom was established at Utrecht. But here again I remind you of the narrow space of territory served by this mint.
The whole question is obscured by considering gold, when coined, as exclusively currency, whereas it is also merchandise. In this latter character it comes under the laws governing commerce in other articles. If we go back to Aristotle, we find a definition difficult to improve in our day. “It is agreed,” says this master of thought, “to give and receive in exchange a substance which, useful in itself, is easily managed in the usage of life: as, for example, iron, silver, or such other substance as shall have a determined dimension and weight, and which, in order to avoid the embarrassment of continual weighing, shall be marked by a particular stamp as the sign of its value.”[337] In quoting these words, Michel Chevalier, the political economist and new-made Senator of France, who has given much attention to this subject, rightly says that the whole question is admirably put and at the same time determined.[338] But the same idea has been presented by Adam Smith in his remarkable work on the Wealth of Nations. “The qualities,” he says, “of utility, beauty, and scarcity are the original foundation of the high price of those metals, or of the great quantity of other goods for which they can everywhere be exchanged. This value was antecedent to and independent of their being employed as coin, and was the quality which fitted them for that employment.”[339] Therefore it must not be forgotten that coin is something more than money; it is merchandise also. In this character it plays a conspicuous part in the commerce of the world. It differs in bulk from the lumber of Maine, but it is just as much an article of merchandise.