Any other metal might just as well have been selected out of which to coin money as gold.
Victoria C. Woodhull
The Public Record
Victoria Claflin Woodhull, later Victoria Woodhull Martin, was an American leader of the women's suffrage movement who ran for president of the United States in the 1872 election. While many historians and authors agree that Woodhull was the first woman to run for the presidency, some disagree with classifying it as a true candidacy because according to the Constitution she would have been too young to be president if elected.
gutenberg.org
Gold is relatively valuable for the general uses it can be made to subserve; so, too, and only so, are all other products.
When this is considered in its true light, we come to a realization that gold is no more money, absolutely, than any other of the different products of the earth, but with them all it forms the real value standard.
This giving up of the earth to the demands, efforts and desires of man, is the process by which he acquires all his wealth.
The finest cloth, the most delicate silks and laces, the most costly jewels, even the light that robs night of its darkness, are all primarily the products of the earth.
The basis, however, of the value is in the productions of the soil of a country; it matters not how much value may be added by the art of man to what nature furnishes.
We have said that there is a true standard of value, and that this is based in the capacity of a country to pay without infringing upon the country itself; that is, without resorting to an actual transfer of supposed title to any part of…
That there is a true standard of value, and one that can never fail in time of need, nor be made use of for speculative purposes as gold is, must be apparent to every thinking mind.
It is now predicted that the sooner gold, as the money god, is dethroned in the hearts and customs of the people, the sooner a sound and perfect system of finance will be inaugurated.
The productive capacity of a country is then the virtual standard of the value of its currency, and as gold can only be obtained by the products of the country, its necessity as a medium may be dispensed with.
It was the productive capacity of this country that gave value to its currency and bonds irrespective of gold.
It was not the amount of gold, absolutely, that the country was supposed capable of acquiring that thus entered into consideration, but the ability of the country to produce certain quantities of merchandise, which should, in time, be…