The weekly Arizona miner., 1878-12-13
Where Gold is Prod ucesi.

The standard coin of many nations is gold in preference to all others. and 1T may be of interest 10 our readers to know where the bulk of this precious metal, which causes so m-ch joy and sorrow in Tle human family, is produced. The Urai Mountains, in Australia, and the United States are the most productive sources of gold supply, the first yielding about S2O,- 100000 annually, the second, S37,000,000, and in all other countries anout S3j, %, ,0000. Prior 10 the discovery of the rich gold fields in California, the total production of gold from all sources only aggregated S6S.0G0,00O per anum. Since god hunting became a mania with the American people, and the great mines on the Pacilc coast have been worked successfully, gold was produced in the United States alone. to the enormous sum of $l3s, 100000. This was the largest yield of any one year, and since the yield has gradually fallen away and finally seems to have reached an equilibrium of about $10O, 100000 annually in Australia, the United States and other places throughout he civilized world, the amount produced only meets the demand.
 Now, if this IS represented the actual yearly increase in the volume of gold which is used as the basis of the .currcDcy of the gold-using countries, it might serve, un- assisted, every purpose as standard. Bat the fact is. this production does little more than supply the place ot that which dis appears from circulation a. money annually by loss and wear, CT metamorphosis into articles of commerce.
 A few years ago some English statistician, after a careful investigation, estimated the yearly loss of gold com to the British Treasury was at least ej,000.000 sterl]ng, and, calculating from thIs basis, the loss % the world must amount to one fourth the total production, and therefore little addition to the bulk of gold in the treasuries of all nations can be expected. It Is true th at new mines may be found. It is not to be supposed that there arc no undiscovered regions rich with aurlferious deposits. But against this are uncertainties of discovery, with an almost certain decrease of the present production. Tina. there has been large increase of the stock on hand during the past quarter of d century cannot be denIed. But this has been due principally to the remarkable discoveries in the Uuited States,
 
 Thirty years ago the entire stock of gold coin was only q little more than $300,0OO,- 900. Now It is $100, ,50O, 100000: but the increase was made during few years, and the past decade has auded little to the stock
 Pertinent to this statement is the vast In- crease ir population and business of those countries which use gold as a standard. The proportion of gold in store at this time is much smaller in proportion to the wealth of the country than 1t was a quarter of q century ago and the ratio IS steadily de- creasing. A greater quantity Of the metal is used in the dCmaiu of art than formerly. Its employment as money is being extended to new fields in company with expanding trade, and underlying the whole question is the sef-evident fact that production itself is subject to the chances ofdiscovery. Itis. therefore, made plainly apparent that gold alone does not and will not be adequate to supply the demand for precious metal as money, and unless some new financial system shall be discovered which is still unknown to any enlightened philosopher of national economy, by which money of intrinsic worth may be dispensed with altogether, the employment of some other metal as an assistant to gold seems imperative, and this brings silver right where it belongs and is needed. Gold and silver come from the same source and they are closely allied by nature,. and the whole world demand that they shall go forth handin-hand, and be recognized as the metallic substance which will he converted into the coin that has more to do toward shaping the destinios of nations fhan all ot fha substancpS ar agencies known to ociviized christcndom.