Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-05-09

very slIlIIlS hlG HatuEhf IuGfthES III
the use of gold by ali the countries
which could get IL. But just TO the
extent to which the desire for gold
could be satisfied by countries which
had hitherto used silver wholly or in
part, SO far was the demand for silver
as a medium of exchange diminished
The new gold, therefore, because II
was only preferred to silver, pushed
it out of place, and, by filling the va
caHcy, took away from silver a part
of the precious demand for the
heavier metal. To the mind Of the
commercial world it was a gubstitu-
ton of "A more convenient for a clum-
sier medium of exchange. In consid-
ering this movement in monetary pro-
events in industrial progress in al
most every branch of activity, no il
l%ustration seems to me more exactly
to describe the change caused by the
introduction of the new gold than
hat of steam. In the former days
the world carried on its exchange by
the slow, uncertain and clumsy meth
DDS of coaches, wagons and sails; now
all is done, at less expense, more
rapidly and conveniently, by railways
and steamships. Both coaches and
railways existed to transfer pas
sengers and freight; so both gold and
silver were used to interchange goods.
Formerly coaches were our chief de-
pendence; SO was it with silver. In
later years the railways has %supplant-
ed the coach, because it does the
same service much better, leaving the
coach to do minor work in other di-
rections; in the same way gold Is
supplanting silver because it serves
the needs of commerce better, and
silver is relegated to use as subsidiary
coin for retail transactions. Conse-
quently, when there is offered to a
commercial country the choice be-
tween using gold and using silver, we
should as soon expect it to prefer sill
yer as we would expect merchants
to-day to send their goods from New
York to Chicago by wagons instead
of by railway. This is the tendency
among modern States to which we
wish to call attention. Inasmuch as
the production of gold from 1855 to
1875 was as great as in the 357 years
preceding 1850, it can easily be seen
what an opportunity was given to
crafty the universal preference for
gold to silver, coming, as it did, at the
opportune moment when commerce
began to expand in an unusual de-
gree. To the extent of the surplus
gold this absorption of gold could go
on without interfering with its value,
except to keep it from a fall. This is
a striking fact in monetary history:
increase the production of gold
enormously, and it is eagerly absorb
ed, and sc does not undergo much
depreciation; but if the production of
silver be increased to the same ex-
tent, it is not permitted to displace
gold in the commercial States, as in
the case with gold; and the increase
of silver only creates distress to know
whether the usual outlets for silver in
the East are sufficient to carry off the
surplus. Thirty-five years ago Eng
land and Portugal alone had a legal
gold standard; all other countries,
either by law or by the effect of cir
cumstances, employed a silver cur
rency. The United States had a
double standard, with but little silver
to use; but Germany, France and the
other countries of Continental Eu-
rope had a silver medium. To-day
the situation is entirely reversed. In
Europe there is not a mint open to
the free coinage of silver. Gold has
unquestionably become the only real
medium of exchange for commercial
Europe. And all this, l contend, has
been brought about by two things:the
commercial preference for gold, and
the extraordinary production of gold
in California and Australia. In pro-
portion as gold found a market, silver
was deprived of one, since they were
both in use for the same purpose"
If King Solomon was alive he would
now a Y "Go to the travelling man,
learn his ways, and be wise" Mr. G.
w. Battell, a Cincinnati travelling man
representing the Queen City Printing
Ink Co., after suffering intensely for
two or three days with lameness OF
the shoulder, resulting from rheuma-
tism, completely cured it with two ap-