The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-08-17

amount in the State of issue, and up to
fifty francs in the other States. Each
country agreed to receive it's small cur
rency from banks or individuals and
give in return gold or five franc silver
pieces The ratio of the Latin Union
was and is / to Is 1-2 The minis were
open to private individuals at this ratio
for both gold and silver, although the
treaty of the Latin Union specified that
each nation should not coin over a GER
tain limit, which was proportionate to
its population. There was" free coinage"
but not unlimited free coinage. Yet 1T
was enough to give thoroughly blme-
talic character to the Latin Union. But
in 1S73 the Union was forced to = begin
restrictions in the free coinage OF silver,
and in 1878 ceased it altogether. The
silver five franc pieces already coined
still remain legal tender, however,
and the Union has an immense amount
of silver as well as gold coin.
OF the Latin Union nations France is
of course, the largest and the most
powerful. She is also much more liber-
al towards silver, having great amount
of it in circulation. In 1885 it was esti-
mated that the French supply OF coin
consisted of 1900, 100000 francs (about
$40, 600, 00o) of gold and $500, 600, 900,
francs in silver 1860, 0o0,000). We have
ourselves only 1904, 900, 900 in gold and
! 1858, 500, 900 in silver coin. 1t is believed
that the people of no other great nation
have so much coin as the French. The
| statement has been made recently by
New York paper that France has eighteen
dollars of silver money to each inhabl-
tant, Holland having fourteen dollars and
the United States only eight dollars. Ac-
cording to the same authority France is
even richer in gold, having twenty dol
lars of it to each inhabitant. The United
States is next in gold supply
AS nation they are thrifty and given
to boarding. This habit of the people is
thought to have aided greatly in enab-
ling France to keep this immense amount
of silver coin on par with gold, in spite
of the fall of silver. So far she has sue
ceeded, although with some difficulty.
She is the greatest friend of silver money
on the continent of Europe, and her sa-
wants have made some of the most bril-
liant arguments on the side of bime-
talism. She maintained that system as
long as possible and abandoned it with
reluctance.
Germany ranks with England as the
arch-enemy of silver. 1t was Germany's
sudden change from silver to gold
standard in 1872 that developed the panic
in the silver market and contributed to
start the decline in the value which re-
suited in the change of the Scandinavian
States to gold basis, the closing of the
| mints of the Latin Union to the free
coinage Of silver, and finally in the
abolition of the old silver dollar of the
United States,-the dollar that has never
| come back in all its glory.
| Germany's unit of value is the gold
money, or little more than the French
franc, which is worth about 1873 cents;
and Germany had in 1885 Imperial gold
coins to the.amount of 1, $50, 600, 600 marks
(about 1887, 500, 0O0); and 100000, 600
marks (about $50, 600, ooo) which had been
stored in the war treasury in Spandau,
by the government for use in an emer-
gency such as war. Germany had also
at that time 94,O00,000 marks (about
| $4s, 500, oo0) in gold as bars or foreign
coin kept at the Imperial bank. Of
silver she had Az, 000, 900 marks (about
s11o, 500, OOo) of Imperial silver coins,
strictly subsidiary, being legal tender
only to limited amount. There were
also in circulation 450,000,000 marks
(s112, 500, 900 } of old German and Aus
trian silver thalers, relic of the old
silver basis, and therefore legal ten
der.
1t will be observed that Germany has
a special "war hoard" of gold in her cas-
tie at Spandau. She is the only nation
who has thus gathered gold as she has
gathered men and cannon; and this re-
calls the warning uttered the other day
by Mr.. Balfour, the English statesman,
when he enumerated the evils that might
result to England from the general tran
sition of the great nations from the BIZ
metallic basis He said that the great
nations of Europe held special control
over their supplies of gold, and that in
case of war England might find herself
subjected to new kind of warfare,
waged by manipulation of that limited
money metal which she has made the
| life blood of her commercial existence
Germany has no intention of abandon
ing the single gold standard, and at the
monetary conference at Brussels last
year her delegates bluntly announced
the fact.
| CURRENT COMMENT.