"What is to be the effect of such vast discoveries on the commerce of
the world--on old communities, on New York, London, and other great
commercial cities? Such a vast addition to the gold currency of the
world will at once disturb the prices and value of all productions and
merchandise to a similar extent to that which we see in Monterey and
San Francisco. The prices of every commodity will therefore rise
extravagantly during the next few years, according to the produce of
gold from that region. Now, in a rising market everything prospers;
every one gets rich, civilisation expands, industry increases, and all
orders of society are benefited. As soon as the first crop of gold from
California reaches New York, the impulse which it will give to
commercial enterprise, and the advance in the price of everything which
it will cause, will be tremendous. The bank currency will be expanded,
for the basis will be abundant; real estate will increase in value,
agricultural productions and agricultural labour will advance at once
10, 15, 20, 30, or 40 per cent., even to as great an extent, perhaps,
as was witnessed when the demand came from Ireland for the food of this
country to feed the starving Irish.
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