The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-10-08
COMMERCIAL MATTERS, Etc.
The Scarcity of Gold.

COMMERCIAL MATTERS, Etc.
The Scarcity of Gold.
The immediate cause of this scarcity is the
movement of the imperial government OF
Germany to establish gold currency. In
doing this she has demonitized over $780,
100000 of silver and the place Of this has to
be filed by gold. Her first move is, Of course,
to draw on London, where she has large de-
posts of gold. But this alarms the Bank Of
England, which will probably cause rise
in the rate of discount in London, in order to
draw gold from this and other foreign coun-
tries that are in debt to Great Britain The
stock in this country is now lower than it has
been for fifteen years, and the prospect is that
it will soon be still smaller.
The public debt statement just published
shows the amount of coin in the Treasury to
be S67, 1873, 3l6, but this includes the silver
recently coined for the silver-resumption nom
sense, and it is plain that instead of there
being $3.50, 900, 600 of coin in this country,
the total stock, including the Pacific States, is
not over S95,000,000 The treasury holds
nearly all the gold coin upon which the mar
ket trades, and from which it is supplied in
the shape of gold notes. These notes, as
shown in the public debt schedule, are re-
duced to the very small sum Of $1l, 645, 0OO,
divided between the New York banks about
100000 and private holders 81, 645, O00
In the face Of this great decrease of the
stock Of gold in the United States it Is report
ed that Mr.. Bristow is about to make new
contract with the Syndicate, to take $780,
600, 600 of A per cent bonds, the proceeds to
be paid in god, by means of which the work
of resumption is to be facilitated. We do not
however credit any such rumor, on the
ground that it would be simply ridiculous.
In the present state OF European money mar
kets, when all the great banks are struggling
to see who shall secure the lions share of the
now scarce article of gold, it is probable that
even our per cent bonds may 60 below par,
and in this condition of things it would, of
course, be impossible to sell a per cents, ex-
cept at q large discount. But even if we
could get the $500, OO0,00 of gold into this
country (which is altogether improbable), we
could not keep it here even by the resump-
ton of specie payments, for the simple reason
that as nation we are largely in debt to
Europe, and can not pay with our present
volume of exports of domestic production;
hence the gold would leave US when Eogland
calls tor it, in spite of all We could do.-Chi-
cago Inter- Ocean, 18th inst.
Egyptian s'Mummy'' Wheat.
The Philadelphia Press is unkind enough
to insinuate that the wheat which has been
exhibited at many Of our recent agricultural
oXulDltlOuS ab Ialsou ITOu gram ITOm LBypi.
ian tombs from 1000 to 5000 years old is
nothing but cheat; and the editor naturally
enough expresses surprise that Americans,
used to wooden nutmegs and shoe peg oats,
should be taken in as we'll as our English
brethren; but it seems, in love tor the mar
velous, all flesh is equally weak" The Press
adds:
Some faith is placed in this worse tb;
Yankee trick Of the Egyptians, because the
wheat is thought to be unlike any now know n.
The kind used in this deception has the ears
slightly branching at the base, as if the ear
were almost persuaded to run off into half
dozen ears instead Of one. But this variety is
an old concern, and well known years ago. 1t
is not generally grown, because it is inferior
in productiveness to the ordinary kind, and
so, not being so we'll known, is just the thing
to impose on those who know no better The
wheat which was really grown by the Egyp-
tians, as far as history affords any clue, was
like ours. There has been no great change in
the wheat grown in all that long time.
Pay and Protection.
[Chicago tribune
The Chief Of the United States Bureau Of
Statistics, Mr.. Edward Young, has just Issued
q careful report, entitled " Labor in America
1t shows the rates of wages and cost of sub
sistence in the United States and British
America. We have made up from it the fol-
lowing interesting table, which CONT ms the
average wages per day Of number OF trades
in this country: