Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1885-06-27
THE RISE IN THE VALUE OF GOLD
From the n. Y. Sum-.

lfrOm The N. L. sum-
The Sun has frequently pointed ont
the injustice of asserting that because
the silver dollar is worth as bullion
only SO per cent. of a gold dollar it is
therefore a deprecated, mutilated, and
dishonest coin. The silver dollar,
measured by marketable commodities
other than gold, has the same value
now that it had ten years ago. Gold
has risen, SO that the proper way of
expressing the truth is to say that the
gold dollar is worth III cents, while
the silver dollar remains at par.
The efforts made both in Europe and
i'm the United States to maintain gold
as the standard of value, notwithstand-
ing the increased and increasing pur-
chasing power of the metal, have re-
suited in a widespread depression of
prices, and a consequent check to the
activity and volume of trade. In view
of the continual losses they suffer, men
are unwilling to buy more goods or to
invest more capital in business than
they are absolutely compelled to. They
see no prospect of profits, and there
fore restrict their transactions to the
narrowest possible limits. In our
opinion there will be no end to this
state of affairs until either the rise in
the value of gold has come to a stop or
the gold standard is abandoned for one
more stable.
The subject is discussed at length in
the London Contemporary Review, by
the eminent statistician Robert Giffen,
and it is satisfactory to find that his
conclusions as to the cause of the pre-
sent depression in prices, and conse-
quentiy in trade, substantially agree
with ours. After coilating and digest
j., ing all the statistics of prices and point
ing cut the recent large absorption of
gold for coinage in Germany, Italy and
the United States, coupled with the
notorious falling off in the annual pro-
duet of the metal, MIR. Giffen says:
Cooking at all the facts, therefore,
it appears impossible to avoid the on
clusion thai the recent course of prices,
SO different from what it was just after
the Australian and Californian dis
cOvcries, is the result in part of the
dimished production and the increased
extraordinary demands apOn the sup
ply of gold. 1t is suggested indeed,
that the increase of banking facilities
and other economics in the use of gold
may have compensated the scarcity.
But the answer clearly is hat in the
period between 1850 and 1865, and
down to 1873, the increase of banking
facilities and similar economics was as
great relatively to the arrangements ex-
listing just before as anything that has
taken place since. The same reply
may also be made to the suggestion
thor ihaf prrJtir1 ,r tio,, Of annnn,aI,Isn
accounts for the entire change that has
occurred. There is no reason to sup
pose that the multiplication of COM
modities relatively to the previous pro.
ductiOn has proceeded at a greater rate
since 1878 than i'll the twenty ears be-
fore that, yet before 1873 prices were
rising, Notwithstanding the multiplica-
ton of commodities; and since that
date the tendency has been to decline.
The one thing which has changed,
therefore, appears to be the supply of
gold and the demands upon it, and to
that cause largely we must accordingly
ascribe the change in the course of
prices which has occurred"
Mr.. Giffen has no hope of any i'm
mediate improvements in the present
condition of things, because, in his
opinion, increase of production will go
on, while the supply of silver, as well
as that of gold, will diminish, SO that
even the adoption of the silver stand
ard would give no relief. On this
point we think he is in error. The sup
ply of silver may, indeed, be diminish
ing somewhat, but its price, compared
with that of gold, shows that the rate
of %diminution is far less than that of
gOld.- The prompt adoption of silver
as a standard instead of gold would
therefore arrest the decline in prices to
a great extent, and palliate, if it did
not cure, the evil of dull trade.