New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1878-03-20
FRENCH FINANCES.

1NANCLE9s
NParis Correspondent Of the Chicago Tribune.
It will not be uninteresting to take glance
at the French monetary system, which there
has of late years been SO much talk of aban-
.doning. The present legal theory of French
money is the result of the legislation of the
seventh and eighteenth Germinal, year XII of
Sthe Republic, corresponding to March 20,
and April 8, 1908. This legislation order
ed:
l. That the monetary unit of France
should be the silver franc, and that gold, by
tolerance, should concurrently be legal ten
der. By franc was understood 4 u grammes
eof pure silver and u gramme of alloy.
2. That the intrinsic value of pure metal
in each coin should be the nominal value
stamped upon it (pieces of money being
therefore only ingots of gold and silver GER
titled by government as to standard and
<weight.)
8. That such money should have unlimited
legal tender currency, and that private per-
sons should have unlimited right to have
their gold and silver bullion coined into
money at the minis.
At the outset, these laws undoubtedly
contemplated the establishment of single
silver standard, in spite of the fact that gold
of gold in relation to silver was fixed in the
proportion of 15115 to 1, that is, one gramme
of pure gold was recognized and decreed
equivalent to 1512 grammes of pure silver,
and all persons in France were compelled to
accept either gold OF silver in this proportion
in payment of debt. It is probable, though
no way proved, that the Legislature had no
intention of making the convention as to
the relative value of the precious metals
binding for future generations. Most politi-
cal economists take it for granted that it was
tacitly understood at the time that if gold
became worth more or less than 1515 times
its weight of silver, through an increase or
falling off in production, or other causes,
there would have to be made corresponds
ing
CHANGE IN THE GOLD COIN.
The gold pieces in circulation would be
melted down and reissued with proportion
ately different denomination of francs
stamped upon them. The law, in fact, that
made the silver franc the standard stipulated
that if, through any cause, the relation of
the gold and silver coins needed to be altered,
only the gold coins should be changed. This
was distinct recognition of the intention
of the Legislature that silver should be the
standard. In practice, however, the none
tary system of France has from the begin
ming been bi-metallic. It is now three-quar
ters of century since the 18th Germinal,
but gold and silver have never ceased to be
unlimited legal tender, nor the relative legal
value of the metals to be as l to 1919.
But, in addition to the articles already
specified, the laws of March and April 1908,
enacted that the standard for gold and silver
should be fixed at nine tenths of pure metal
to one-tenth of alloy for all legal money.
The following coins are to-day the only
legal money of France-bank-notes are no
longer legal-tender: The 1OO-franc gold
pieces, very rare; 5O-franc gold pieces, very
rare; 2O-franc gold pieces, or napoleon; 10
gold pieces; and the 5-franc silver pieces
1t was slightly modified few years ago in
the cases of the fractional coins, for 2f, IT,,
50 confines and 20 centimes silver pieces
For these, which with the copper coins 10
centimes, S confines, 2 confines, and l
centime, are only token money, the standard
has been lowered to meet particular emer-
gencies. 1t is now fixed at 35-1OO of pure
metal to 65-1OO Of alloy.
Here then is an example of nation con-
sistently and calmly
HOLDING TO BI-METALLIC SYSTEM
WV o p!OoAoSCOu Jcl1Ou, WlLuOuG
venience to itself and with much convenience
to the world at large. Between 1903 and
1873 the relative yields of gold and silver
have altered again and again, but the pro-
portion of l515 to resisted the force of all
fluctuations. At the beginning of
the century it is roughly computed that
the production of silver exceeded that of
gold as so to Gn weight) or about 8 to L in
value. In 1849 or 1850, during the Calfor-
mia fever, the yield of gold was almost
equal to that of silver in value Between
1852 and 1865, the difference was largely in
favor of gold, probably three times the value
of the inferior metal being discovered. The
price of gold fell in the market relatively to
silver, yet France went on coming us usual,
undisturbed, at the old rate of 15@ to 1. In
1867, and from that time forward to the
present, silver went down, down, down, or
gold went up-as you choose-til the mar
ket difference in value of the first came to
represent serious loss. France went on
coming. She had not felt any harm from
her disregard of the much heavier increase
of gold production from 1848 to 1865, and
she saw no reason to dread harm in the case
of silver, especially as the value of the early
production in Nevada, ETC., was small, com
pared to the immense finds of gold in
the Sacramento valley and in Australia. 1t
was argued: even supposlng the annual find
of silver should double or treble, and in