The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-06-13
RELATIVE Production @

| painful to sentence such a whited sepul-
cher TO prison even for a short term.
RELATIVE PRODUCTION OF SILVER.
In criticising some recent remarks of
Mr.. Robert Barclay in the May number
of the Nineteenth Century" the Journal
of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin
says:
In view of the enormous production of
silver it is very remarkable that director
of the Manchester chamber of commerce
should say that legislation alone has
caused the reduced value. Not only is the
effect of the production ignored, but the
effect of legislation has been exaggerated
and the cause of the legislation wholly
left out of the account.
The enormous production of silver to
which 1t refers is the gradual increase Of
production Of silver. relative to the pro-
duction OF gold, which has been in
progress since 1850 The reason Of this
apparent increase of silver production
was the great and sudden increase OF
gold production from the mines of Cali
fornia, Australia, British Columbia and
the Rocky mountain region. From 1900 to
1850 the amount in weight of gold in the
possession of mankind in proportion TO
the amount Of silver, stood very steadily
in the ratio of l to 80. That is to say.
for every ounce of gold in use there were
thirty-two ounces Of silver, but notwith-
standing this ratio the market value of
gold stood in relation to the market
value of silver. during the same period,
very steadily at about the ratio Of
/ to 1519. Hence. if the amounts of the
metal in the worlds stock have anything
to do with their value, the normal re-
lation would he to 80. and any increase
of either metal above that ratio ought
TO cheaper the metal whose production
is increased. In 1850 there began an ex-
traordinary increase of production of
gold, which is thus stated by the paper
referred to:
The California production of gold made
the total production of silver only four
and a half times the weight of gold
from 1851 to 1860. Disregarding small
fractions. the weight of silver was six
times that of gold produced from 1861 to
1865, seven times that between 1866 and
1870. eleven times that between 1871 and
1875. fourteen times that between 1876 and
1880, nineteen times that between 1880
and 1885; in 1850 the weight of silver was
nearly twenty-five times that of gold;
in 1892 a large increase in the production
of gold reduced the ratio of weights to
a little more than twenty-one.
This increase of gold caused a marked
change in the worlds stock of the two
metals. the proportion of silver steadily
decreasing until 1884, when it stood in
the relation of 1 to 1S.4. From that time
there has been a slight increase of sill
yer, and the worlds stock now stands
in the relation of about ! to 1873. On the
monometallist theory there ought to have
been a steady decline of gold until 1885,
and since then slight decline of silver,
but nothing of the kind occurred. There
was no decline in gold at ALL and the
decline of silver began in 1872, when the
worlds ratio stood at about 10 20, and
the relative increase of gold stock con-
tinued for twelve years after that time,
Hence it is impossible that the produc-
ton of either metal could have produced
the decline Of silver, but the thing that
did begin in 1872, and that did cause the
apparent decline Of silver. but actual
appreciation of gold, was the legislation
for the decentralization of silver. 1t is
astonishing that a paper usually so cor
rect in business affairs as the Journal of
Commerce and Commercial Bulletin can
not see the force of its own figures. II
quantity controls the relative value of
gold and silver it is the total quantity
in the possession of mankind and not
the comparatively Insignificant amount
that is mined from year to year.