The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-17 00:00:00

GOLD STATISTICS.

(From the Times.)
On the 21st of May last year a letter was inserted
from Mr. William Birkmyre, containing some elaborate
statistical tables of the annual produce of gold and. silver
throughout the world, accompanied by remarks nil har-
mony with the doctrine that extensive change! will be
produced in the relations of property by the increased
supplies from California and Australia. It appears that
since that time Mr. Birkmyre has proceeded to Australia,
where, with the advantage of being able personally to
judge of the prospeets of the mines, he has still pursued
his abstract inquiries. The results will be found in the
following letter, written at Melbourne, and recently
received from him. Its length. is justified by the perma-
nently useful character of the new tables it contains, and
it will be seen that, upon reviewing the course of affairs
in Australia up to the end of December, Mr. Birkmyre
not only feels strengthened in the soundness of the con-
clusions which have been formed respecting the influences
that will ultimately be exerted on prices, but is also dis-
posed to believe that the annual production of gold in
the colonies will greatly increase, especially when ordi-
nary skill and industry shall be applied to the extraction
of the metal from the various quartz veins already
discovered :

" Sir,—At the close of the year 1852 some brief remarks,
and one or two statistical tables regarding the general pro-
duction and consumption of gold and silver, may not be
without interest ; for, whatever some persons in London
and Paris may say of the present abundance of gold as not
likely to have much effect upon the general commerce of
the world, there is not one resident in Melbourne but will
admit the extraordinary effects of gold upon the province
of Victoria. Within a year of its discovery in that colony
not only has the harbour been crowded with some of the
finest ships in the world, but house property, wages,
and provisions have enormously increased in value.
" Next, perhaps, to the astonishing discoveries of the
precious metal is the incredulity of some persons respecting
the probable effects of the present great abundance of gold,
and that despite the well known fact of the rise in prices
in the 16th century in consequence of the discovery of the
rich mines of America. A quarter of wheat, for instance,
about 150 years before the discovery of America, could be
purchased for 65., while the same quality of wheat in 150
years after that event could not be bought for less than six
times the money. But it is more than probable that those
who in the united kingdom continue blindly to resist the
evidence of their own senses, and who were the last per-
sons to engage in any speculation, however useful, during
the collapse of the railway mania, are now the very indi-
viduals whom Britain will have to thank in some degree
for their obstinacy. For, at the same time that Australia
is reaping a golden harvest, it is no less likely that the
above class of individuals, distrustful of all enterprise, and
the effects of the present abundance of gold, will enable
the old country, with its war-contracted debt, to pay off a
large part of her national incumbrance, and thereby benefit
millions of her population. And it is to be expected, too,
that another class of individuals, full of hope and enter-
prise, will obtain for the United Kingdom from the new
order of things, the same benefits that California has con-
ferred upon the United States of America ; for, notwith-
standing the inclination of man, in his own time, to raise
into undue importance the value of some discoveries, still
the great results that have already flowed from the gold
fields of California and Australia indicate to both Britain
and America that there never was, in the history of na-
tions a period like the present, take it all in all, so con-
ducive to the spread of peaceful enterprise and the blessings
of civilisation to every distant land.
" In order, however, to give a clearer view to those at a
distance of the present prices in Melbourne, the subjoined
is a short comparative table (No. 1) of the average prices in
Melbourne towards the latter end of December of the years
1850, 1851, and 1852.
" And, with the view of being some criterion for the
future in regard to prices, there follow tables of the annual
produce of gold and silver ; of the coinage of both metals
in the United Kingdom, United States, and France in the
50 years ending 1850 ; and also of the coinage of the same
metals in the United Kingdom from the accession of James
1., in 1603, till December, 1850 :
TABLE I.

1850. 1851. 1852.
LABOUR. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d.
Labourers, per week Oll 0 017 6 214 6
Shepherds, withrations,peran 23 0 0 29 0 038 0 0
Blacksmiths, ditto
General useful servants, ditto 28 0 0 38 0 057 10 0
Carpenters, per day
FEMALE SERVANTS.
Thorough servants,per annum 15 . 0 0 17 0 027 10 0
Cooks ditto 18 002000 12 10 0
Nursemaids ditto 900170 oa 0 0
PROVISIONS.
Beer, ale, per hogshead
Tea, hyson skin, per chest
Coffee, Java, per lb.
Sugar, refined, per lb 0 0 4i 0 0 7 0 0 9
Flour,* fine, per ton 17 10 0 25 4' 0
Bread, per 4 lb. loaf
Rice, Java, per ton
Cabbages, per dozen
Gooseberries, per quart
Cherries, per lb.
Fowls, per pair
Ducks, ditto
Geese and turkeys, each
Sheep, wethers, each
Cows, each
Horses, hacks

by the ton of 2,000
ited Kingdom. If
rice is respectively

* Flour is usually sold in Melbourne
lb., instead of 2,240 lb., as in the Un
reckoned by the ton of 2,000 lb., the p:
161. and 221. 103.
"An acre of land in the neighbourhood of the towns o
Geelong and Melbourne, which was not worth more than
251. in 1850, is now worth at least 1,0001. Houses, or
rather cottages of four rooms, rented at 241. in 1850, are
now let at 2001. per annum.
" The rich gold washings in Brazil, as,well as the earlier
mines of other territories in the New World, had an im-
portant effect upon the commerce of the globe, although
during the first 57 years of the Brazilian gold washings,
the greatest annual produce never exceeded 1,088,9251.
(namely, in the year ending the Ist of August, 1754), and
which does not amount to one-tenth of the gold obtained
in Australia in the second year of its discovery. It is true
that a produce of 12,000,0001. sterling in the present day
will not have the same effect upon the currency as the
same quantity would have in 1754, in consequence of the
vastly greater
quantity of coined money now circulating.
But if it were true, as
there is only 15° it is stated in some estimates, that
,°OO,OOO/. of gold coin in existence, a
yearly produce of 12,000,000/, from one country would
have an immediate and great effect upon commerce. There
can, however, be little doubt that the above estimated
quantity 0f,150,000,000/. is far within the reality. It will
be seen by one of the following tables (No. III.) that the
amount of gold coined in three countries, and in 50 years
merely, was 176,596,0861., and is exclusive of the coinage
of many other countries, such as Russia, Spain and its
colonies, where the amount of gold coined is well known
to have been very great. If, then, we estimate (after
deducting the wear and tear, and making allowance for
the fusion of coin of one State in order to its being re-
coined in another) the present quantity of gold coin in
circulation at 400,000,0001. sterling, and silver at
600,000,0001., instead of 400,000,0001. for both metals, and
conclude that the same proportion of gold to silver existed
in 1754, but that the total amount in those days could
not possibly exceed 300,
000,0001. • now, 1,088,9251. of
Brazilian gold would represent an action upon 112,000,0001.
of coined gold, while at the present day it is 12,400,000/.
. coined gold. The result of
effectthe o fformer,the
Brazilian Austrgian upon 400,009,
the la er, instead of being 11 times as
a ought only to be 3.6 timo.es as
f Brazilian gold, supposing
placement of coin in commercial
1. about 100 years ago. If we Add
\\\ a as s great
the as
transactions than existed
theregrwas now no greater dis-
placement yield of
4.' i
' ' California for this year—namely, 2t111,04e 1,666/ , under the
/ same conditions the effect must be 6.3
times as great as
1 that felt during the lass century.
" The produce of the goldfields of Australia for the year
—a:— TN----I. ons.i, lon ~,Twat.
in have been 284,000 i

at the Mint price of 3/. year,o, is equal to
oz., which,
1,12,825/4 and the produce for
to
12,440,1991. ending 204hheosef
December, 3,194,135 oz., equal
figures have been deduced from the shipment? of specie at
after making allowance
167,792 oz. which
Sfoyrd;tleyn,s3l.Bhielpbraourneutes,, asnridd
theretoGacanlongg,
have been taken overland to Adelaide. Although 31. 17s.
10d. per oz., is much above the price in Sydney and Mel-
bourne, yet the quality of the Victoria gold is consider.
ably better than standard—in fact a good deal of it aver-
ages as high as 4.4 per cent., or 3 carat grains, better than
standard, and worth 41. is. W. per ounce in London. The
whole has on that account been valued at the mint price.
" The great question follows—Will the goldfields of
Australia produce as much gold in the next 12 months as
they have done during the last 12 months ? Now, after
much inquiry among the golddiggers and consideration of
the subject, the conclusion is inevitable that, although there
may not be such instances of individual success as have been
observed this year, yet the aggregate produce of 1853 is
likely to be much more than that of 1852. It is evident how-
ever, that Forest Creek and Bendigo will require for the fu-
ture more skill to be applied to the extraction of the gold to
make them yield the large quantities of 1852. On the
other hand, at new diggings elsewhere, such as the Ovens,
oven the same skill only as has been exercised at Mount
Alexander will very soon show a larger produce of gold
than that obtained in the corresponding months of this
year, 1852. And when it is remembered that a gold com-
pany in England working a Brazilian mine cleared last year
upwards of 40,0001., although their gold-stone did not yield
them quite half an ounce of gold per ton of rock, we may
conclude that, if the same amount of skill and capital were
applied to the very rich gold rocks of this country, there is
but little probability of the great produce of Australia in
1852 falling of for some years to come. In support of the
above general statement relative to the increase of gold in
1853, it may be mentioned here that the escort from the
diggings in the week ending Saturday, December 28, 1851,
only brought to Geelong and Melbourne 10,851 oz., while
the escorts from the same diggings brought to Geelong and
Melbourne in the week ending Friday, December 31, 1852,
30,995 oz., and the escort from the new diggings at the
Ovens was on the way to Melbourne with 13,400 oz., and
there was as much more ready to be taken by another
escort to Sydney.

1
TABLE 11.
" The following is a short table of the annual produce of
gold and silver in the years 1801, 1840, and the estimated.
produce for 1852 :

Gold.
*lBOl 1-1840 11852
Eastern Continent ... £250,523 £2,245,802 £17,752,732
Western ditto ..... ... 2,361,776 1,301,560 22,041,666

£2,612,369 £3,547,362 £39,794,398
' Silver.
*lBOl +lB4O +1852
Eastern Continent £657,683 £1,204,396 £1,605,024
Western ditto 6,928,252 5,261,619 7,622,814

£7,585,935 £6,465,925 £9,227,835
Total Annual Produce of Gold and Silver.
*lBOl -1.1840 t 1852
Gold £2,612,369 £3,547,362 £39,794,398
Silver

£10,198,304 £10,013,287 £49,022,235
* Exclagive of Africa, Chino, and Japan.
Including Africa, but excluding China sad Japan.
Gold. Silver. Gold. S i'ver.
In 1801.. l9 tons avoirdupois to 856 tons, or 11b. to 451 b.
1840 27 f f 714 „ 11b. to 261 b.
1852... 286 f f 1,019 „ 11b. to 31b.
Subjoined is the estimated annual produce of the pre-
cious metals in tons, and the proportion of gold to the
silver in the years 1801, 1840, and 1852 :
- -

" The annual consumption of the precious metals in the
arts is supposed to be 6,500,0001., of which at one time
1,454,0001. might be estimated to consist of gold, but it is,
now probably, 2,300,0001. of gold, the rest—namely,
3,500,00001.—being silver. Yet, the above estimated con-
sumption of gold must be considered as allowing for a large
increase, inasmuch as the annual produce of gold between
the years 1801 and 1840 never amounted to 4,000,000/ ,
and, in fact, appears by the foregoing table to have been
under 3,000,0001. in 1801, when the mines were even then
supposed to be doing well. Deducting, however, 3,000,0001.
from the estimated produce of gold for this year—namely,
39,794,3981., leaves no less than 36,794,3981. to be converted
into coin. As the total circulation of gold coin in Great
Britain and Ireland in the year 1780 was reckoned by the
Mint authorities at 26,003,1351., the present annual pro-
duce of gold thus exceeds the circulation of those days by
10,791,2631. And on comparing 36,794,3981. with the table
of the coinage of the -United Kingdom, we find that it is up-
wards of one-sixth of the entire gold coinage of the -United
Kingdom in the period of 247 years ending with December
1850. Such an increase in the production of gold cannot
fail to produce in the old country results akin in some re-
spects, and widely different in others, to those which every
one in Victoria has witnessed in the last twelve months.
Of this, however, there cannot be the slightest doubt that
the great mass of the people of Britain will derive immense
benefit from the new gold fields of America and Australia.
" The following table (No. 3) shows the amount of gold
and silver coin required in three of the principal States of
the world in the 50 years ending 1850. It is divided into
four periods for the sake of showing the immense increase
in the gold coinage consequent upon the rich discoveries of
gold in Russia, California, and Australia. The first period
exhibits the total amount, together with the average
yearly coinage of gold and silver required in the first
40 years of this century, or till the Russian gold washings
became decidedly important, that is to say, in the year
1840, when they began to yield upwards of 21,8751 b. troy
yearly of purely gold, that quantity being equivalent to
1,115,0371. The second period contains the amount coined,
and likewise the yearly average of both metals, in the seven
years ending with December, 1847, this date being a few
months before the discovery of the rich deposits of gold in
California. The third period shows the amount coined,
and also the average of the yearly coinage of both metals,
since the Californian discovery, namely, for the years 1848,
1849, and 1850. The fourth period gives, as near as can
Ibe ascertained, the gold coinage in 1851 and part of 1852,
when gold was found abundantly in Australia :

TABLE 111.
FIRST PERIOD.
Gold coined in the 40 years ending 1840.

United Kingdom

United States
France (about)

Total Amount. Yearly Average
. £64,418,461 £1,610,461
. 5,647,321 141,183
. 43,434,166 1,085,853

£113,499,945 £,827,497
Silver coined in the 40 years ending 1840.
Total Amount. Yearly Average
United Kingdom £11,202,104 £280,052
United States 11,203,215 280,080
France (about)

£147,907,319 £3,697,632
Gold and silver coined in the 40 years ending 1840.
Total Amount. Yearly Average.
United Kingdom £75,620,565 ... £1,890,514
United States 16,850,543 ... 441,263
France 168,964,146 ... 4,223,353

£261,405,254 £6,535,130
SECOND PERIOD.
Gold coined In the seven years ending 1847.
(gee note.) Total Amount. Yearly Average.
'United Kingdom £30,264,929 ... £4,232,561
-United States 8.158,316 ... 1,165,188
France (about)

£41,923,245 £5,897,747
Silver coined in the seven years ending 1847.
Total Amaant. Yearly Average
United Kingdom £2,572,631 ... £367,518
United States
France (about) 8,600,000 ... 1,228,571

£14,586,572- £2,083,794
Gold and silver coined in the seven years ending 1847.
Total Amount. Yearly Average
United Kingdom £32,837,560 ... £4,691,080
United States 11.572,257 ... 1,653,179
France 12,100,000 ... 1,728,571

£56,509,817 £8,072,830
THIRD PERIOD.
Gold coined in the three years ending 1350.
Coined per Coined per Coined per Total
In annum in annum in annum Amount
the the United the United in Ft the three Yearly
year Kingdom. States. Fran2ce. Countries. Average.
1848 ...2,451,999 786,565 1,234,472 4,473,036 1,491,012
1849 ..2,177,955 1,875,158 1,082,382 5,137,497 1,712,499
1850...1,491,836 6,662,854 3,407,691 11,562,382 3,854427

6,121,790 9,324,577 5,726,526 21,172,912 7,057,638
Silver coined in the throe years ending 1850.
Coined per Coined per Coined per Total
annum in annum in annum Amount
In the the United the United in in the three Yearly
Year Kingdom. States. France. Countries. Average.
£ £ £ £ £
1848...35,442 425,010 3,902,613 4,363,065 1;454,355
1849 119,592 440,614 8,261,946 8,822,152 2,940,717
1850-129,096 388,770 3,458,336 3,972,205 1,324,068

284,130 1,254,394 15,622,895 17,161,422 5,720,474
Gold and Silver coined in the three years ending 1850.

Total Amount.
£8,836,101
13,959,647
15,538 586

Yearly Averaze.
22,945,367
4,853,215
5,176,195

£38,333,334 £12,777,718
Gold coined in the United Kingdom in the 50 years
ending 1850.

Yearly
Average,

In the Ist period of 40 years,.end-£
ing 1840 64,418,461 £1,610,461
In the 2d period of 7 years, ending
1847 .. ........ .. . 30,264,929 4,232,561
In tho 3d period of 3 years, ending
1850 6,121,790 2,040,596

£100,805,180
Silver coined in the United Kingdom in the 50 years
ending 1850.

Yearly
Average,

In the Ist period of 40 years,
Mend -
ing 1840 1,203,215 £280,052
In the 2d period of 7 years, ending
lii47 3413.941 364,518
In the 3d period of 3 years ending
1850 1,254,394 94,710

£15,871,550
Gold coined in the United States in the 50 years ending

1850.

Yearly
Ayeraze

In the Ist period of 40 years, end-
ing 1840 0,647,328 £141,183
In the 2d period of 7 years, ending
1847. 8,158,316 1,165,188
In the 3d period of 3 years, ending
1850. 9,324,577 3,103,192

£23,130,221
Silver coined in the United States in the 50 years ending

1850.

Yearly
Average.

In the Ist period of 40 years, end-
ing 1840 £11,203,215 £280,080
In the 2d period of 7 years, ending
1847
In the 3d period of 3 years, ending
1850

1,254,394 418,131

£15,871,550