The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1895-06-04

metals in circulation at the same time
changed the legal ratio between them NOR
than 100 times in single century, and
finally, IN 1876, finding that gold was leav
ing her. and that in ten years her net inn
ports of silver had amounted TO $3.50, 000
600, stopped the coinage of legal tender
silver, and for 10 years the attempt ha.
been abandoned in that country.
Many other nations in Europe and othel
parts of the world have subjected theil
people to great loss and expense by theil
adherence to monetary systems based upor
the theory that double standard could be
maintained, but in no case have they sue
ceeded in keeping the coins of the two met
ais in use at the same time, except for very
short periods. Our own country is not
without experience upon this subject, and
the results here were just the same as they
have been everywhere else.
Previous Monetary Legislation.
1t would .,e useless consumption OF
time to go into detailed account of the
monetary legislation of this and other coun-
tries, or to show at length how it affected
the movements and use of the two metals
by its repeated failures to conform the To-
| gal ratio to the actual commercial ratio
between them. The great and impor-
tant fact conclusively established by the
history of that Legislation and its effects
upon the circulation of the coins of
the two metals is that whenever one of
them is overvalued relatively TO the
other in the coinage laws with free coin
age or coinage upon equal terms, and both
are made legal tender the coins of the I'M
1ervalued metal will be driven out of cir
culation and out of use as money in the
country where the unequal valuation is
made The reasons for this are perfectly
plain. Both being legal tenders, the least
valuable coins will always be used in max
ing payments and will become the meas
ures of value in the exchange of commodi-
ties, and consequently the more valuable
coins will be boarded or sent out of the
country into market where their real
value will be recognized.
Now, as this is just what has always &C.
curred-at lsast in modern times when
commercial relations between different
countries are so intimate and the means of
transportation are so rapid and cheap
even when the differentiation or overval-
uation amounted to only or per cent, 1
think we are fully justified in concluding
that If the United States alone should
adopt the policy of free and unlimited coin
age of legal tender silver at the ratio of 16
to /, which would be an generalization of
that metal to the amount Of 100 per cent,
all the gold in the country would be i'm
lnediately boarded or exported or be held
as q commodity by spectators engaged in
the business of buying and selling it at q
premium. If this should be the result, the
free coinage of silver would not for a long
time add anything whatever, even nomi-
nally, to our stock of money. On the con-
trary, the immediate effect of such policy
would be a contraction TO the extent Of
fully one-third of our present volume Of
currency by the expulsion of about $685.
600, 600 in gold, and it would require more
than Is years to supply its place with sill
yer dollars, even if our minis coined moth
ing else,
A Revolutionary Policy.
All who have been or may be induced
to give their support to this revolutionary
policy, upon the assurance that it will give
the country more money for use in the
transaction of business, will be greatly
disappointed, for they will find, when it is
too late, that instead of having more mon
ey they will have less, and that it will be
deprecated in value besides. The intro
Il
any kind of money about which there is
the least doubt will always operate to
drive out the same amount, or about the
same amount, of better money and thus
leave the people with substantially the
same volume Of currency they had at the
The act providing for the pur-
chase of silver bullion and the issue of le-
gal tender treasury notes in payment for it
an, ha 4 Il % TIL,
and the purchasing clause of that act was
repealed Nov. /, 1898. While it remained
in force United States treasury notes were
issued TO the amount of S155, 931 ,0O2, and
there were many people who believed that
this was making q material and perma-
nent addition to the volume of our cur
rency, but the official records show that
during the same time the net exports of
gold from this country amounted to S1O3,-
419, 491, so that the real addition to our
circulation accomplished by the issue of
nearly Sl5G, 600, 600 of new notes was
about $52, 800 600 during period of more
than three years. The mere apprehension
that the government would not be able to
maintain the parity of the two metals I'M
der the policy inaugurated by that act
not only discrCdited the new treasury notes !
'iASllloCINSoJ buO Cllc NIOlC NOLuIllO VI OllT
currency and gold went out about as fast !
as the new notes came in.
While, therefore, it is not at all certain |
that free coinage would ultimately make |
any considerable addition to our circula-
ton, it is absolutely certain that it would |
give us deprecated and fluctuating cur |
rency, and the question is whether the pro-
lucers of cotton, wheat, corn, beef, pork, |
oil, lard, cheese and other exportable ar |
ticles will be benefited or injured by such |
d result 1t is an axiom in trade that the |
prices Of exportable products are fixed in |
the foreign market where the surplus is |
sold and are fixed in the currency of that !
country according to its nominal value |
there. If sold in England, for illustration,
the prices are fixed and paid in pounds, |
and pence and not in dollars and |
cents, and, consequently it makes no diff
ference to the foreign purchaser what kind |
Of currency the producer has at home
The character or value of the currency in
use in the producing country does not af-
feet the price of the article abroad to any
extent whatever, for the purchaser there
trades in his own market and uses his own
in measuring values.
The establishment of a silver standard |
here could net possibly increase the price
Of cotton or wheat or any other American
product in Liverpool, London, Paris or
Berlin, whatever effect it might have upon
the nominal price in this country. If our |
system were so changed that it |