Money and Profit-sharing

light out of darkness, and an order out of the previously existing chaos.

If such a conception of economic phenomena be irrational its immediate exposure will prevent this writer from wasting any more precious time in developing such a conception. But if the conception be rational it cannot but help to further the development of the science. Whatever of truth there Whatever of truth there may be either in the proposed solutions of the particular problems discussed, or in the general view of the science presented, will, in the white light of impartial criticism, be speedily detached from the errors which are the consequences of the subjective limitations of the writer.

It is admitted by all that the economic organism of society is, somewhere and somehow, defective; the need of the ever present hour is that this organism be carefully, diligently, thoroughly, and dispassionately examined; and such defects as may be proven to exist therein, and for which efficient and sufficient remedies can be prescribed, be treated with the least possible delay and according to the methods which may reasonably be calculated to produce the minimum of friction, in those parts of the organism most immediately affected, and also in the organism as a whole, with the maximum of correction in the defective parts of the organism. It is only thus that we shall be able to enter into "the rest that remaineth." When this truth shall have been accepted by "the consensus of the competent," when, for all practical purposes, unanimity shall have been reached with reference to

any particular reform, then legislation, making the principles of such reform incarnate in society, is the order of the day, otherwise there will be schism engendered within the body of society, and our aim and object is, or should be, to attain unto and to maintain the unity of society.

This fragment has been written by one who has but very little leisure to devote to the investigation of complex social subjects. The writer is conscious of its incompleteness, and of its many other literary defects. He trusts, however, that an indulgent public will not be too severe in its judgment because of these defects. He must also apologise for the degree of positiveness with which he has written upon subjects concerning which it is manifestly much easier to fall into error than to discover truth.

KILLARNEY,

ST. SAVIOUR'S ROAD, ST. HELIER,

JERSEY, July, 1908.

CALIFORNIA

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

THIS book deals with a criticism on the DOUBLE Standard Money System (which must NOT be NOT be confounded with Bimetallism), as set forth in "Inter-Temporary Values" and "The Trust and the Gold Trust," which appeared in the Bankers' Magazine for September 1907, and draws attention to the very injurious consequences, to the industry and commerce of the nations, of the continuous violent fluctuations in prices, resulting, in ever increasing frequency, in the crises and the panics, which have prevailed throughout the West ever since the monetary legislation, of the period from 1871-73 to the present time, began to be effective, which has destroyed, for international monetary purposes, the use of one half of the world's supply of the precious metals.

It also deals with the problem of Profit-Sharing as a means of reconciling the subjective divergencies of the particular and temporary interests of employers and employees which are, for practical purposes, more noticeable than the objective harmonies of their general and permanent interests, these being more obscure and remote from the immediate concerns of every-day life.

The objects aimed at and pointed out in this book, and in the other economic writings of the author, are:

(1) That Values are distributed in Time as well as in Space, and vary in Time as well as in Space, thereby necessarily giving rise to the distinction between :-

(a) Contemporary Values,

and

(b) Inter-Temporary Values,

similar to the recognised distinction between :-

and

(d) International Values.

(2) That the exchange value of Money varies inversely

with the exchange value of Commodities, therefore Money

ALONE cannot be either a just or an equitable standard for

the regulating, adjusting, and settling of INTER-TEMPORARY

BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS.

(3) That, besides its fluctuating exchange value or

general purchasing power, Money, UNLIKE ALL OTHER
ARTICLES OF WEALTH, has fixed legal-tender value or
GENERAL DEBT-PAYING POWER created by statute law.

(4) That the regular and normal operations of Section 6

of the Coinage Act, 1870, and the other provisions of the

laws regulating the legal-tender or general debt-paying

functions of money, regulating the settlement of all INTER-

TEMPORARY TRANSACTIONS OR DEALINGS, exacts either more

or less than the just and equitable claim, accordingly as the

circumstances of production and exchange, during the period,

from the inception to the maturity, of an inter-temporary

transaction or dealing, have depressed or elevated prices.

(5) That the intermittent but permanent tendency of

Money is to APPRECIATE in exchange value, as the progress

of the economic arts-industrial, commercial and financial

efficiency-reduces cost of production, and as abundance

reduces price.

(6) That under the existing legally established economic

order, for practical business purposes working-men are

divided into three great groups :-

(a) Capitalists or the Creditor Classes,

(6) Entrepreneurs or Employers,

and

That the active business of production and exchange is
carried on by the Entrepreneurs' or Employers' Group, who

secure for themselves the direction and control of the whole
of both the capital and labour of the nation, and also the
legal custody and control of the whole of the produce re-
sulting from the general economic co-operation of all classes
of working-men, by undertaking IN ADVANCE to pay :-

(d) Fixed sums of money to Real Estate Merchants,
Bankers, Common Carriers, &c. &c., in the
form of Rent, Interest, Freight, &c. &c., as
value in exchange for the services of these
economic functionaries, and for the use of
their fixed and circulating capital, that is,
for the use of their wealth employed in the
production and exchange of wealth;

(e) Fixed sums of money to Labourers, in the form

of Salaries or Wages, as value in exchange

for the services of those economic function-

aries who are employed in the direct and

immediate handling of the material and

instruments of production, that is, the fixed

and circulating capital employed in the

work of the production and exchange of

wealth-in full satisfaction of all the claims

of both the Capitalists' and Labourers' Groups

of working-men upon the whole of the final

product of the general economic co-opera-