The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1893-07-13
THE GOLD STANDARD.

In view of the approaching extra
session of Congress it is well to be
informed of many phases of the
silver problem, and we reproduce
here a short historical sketch from
the Oakland Call Enquirer.
"In 1916 England made gold her
standard of monetary value. In
1878 the United States abolished the
double standard and made the gold
dollar the unit of her coinage, and
though several acts have since been
passed to encourage the use of silver,
the minis have not been reopened to
the free coinage of silver, and the
United States is virtually a gold
standard country, though not pro-
fessedly so. Germany adopted the
gold standard in 1871. In 1876
France stopped the coinage of silver,
and, like the United States, it is to-
day really gold-standard country,
though nominally maintaining the
double standard. Belgium and
Holland are in the same situation.
They are nominally double standard
nations, but their mints are open to
the free coinage of gold and not of
silver. Austria is just in the process
of changing from a silver standard
to a gold one, and now British India
follows. She is not, however, the
first of the Asiatic cour tries to take
that step, for Persia had preceded
her. Other gold standard countries
are Brazil, Egypt, Finland, Hayti,
Portugal, Denmark, Norway and
Sweden.
''Whatever may be the case as to
later changes to the gold standard,
the original adoption of it by Eng
land in 1916 was mere matter OF
convenience, as Horace White OF
New York showed in paper. which
he read before the Congress of Bank
ers in Chicago. In the reign of Queen
Elizabeth the ratio OF silver TO gold
was fixed at IL to 1, but gold soon
rose in value and was exported, leay-
ing only silver with which to do busi-
ness. Then a new ratio, II to {,
WAS ordered by james l., but still
silver deprecated, or gold increased
III value, for the export continued,
and the ratio was changed to ID to
1. But now the boot was on the
other foot, gold being over-valued
and silver under valued. Silver was
exported, leaving the people without
small money with which to do their
business. Rather than attempt a
new ratio, the king prohibited the
expectation of silver, but the procla
nation mad no effect, and though
often renewed by James and Charles
[, the law continued imperative.
But in course of time the steady
though slow appreciation of gold
made things even, and in the latter
part of the reign of Charles l the
bullion value ratio of the two metals
came to ageee with the mint ratio,
and Interpretation of silver stopped.
Continuing to rise, gold had by
1853 reached such value that it was
necessary to fix new ratio, 14Aa to
1. For the next fifty or seyenty-fiye
years silver was the money mostly
in use. gold generally being accepted
at it's bullion value and not it's mint
value In TIT the ratio was
changed to Is 1T to i, but as gold
was again oyerrated, there was q
tendency to export silver. Only
those silver coins which had been
made light by wear remained in cir
culation, and in 1774 Parliament
passed an act limiting payments of
silver in legal tender to e25. This
law was to hold good for two years,
but was renewed periodically till
1899, when it was made perpetual.
In 179S the free coinage Of silver was
stopped, all silver coinage in Eng
land since that having been made on
account. In 1916 the
British government did formally, by
act of Parliament, what it had
virtually done in 1913, and adopted
the single gold standard. It had
come to believe that it was useless to
try to maintain both Metals at par
and coin both in such quantities as
were offered.
ssOther nations tried to solve the
difficulty of keeping two metals at
par by adopting silver as the stand