The herald., 1896-07-27
NATIONS HOARD OF GOLD

Tables have just been prepared for the
annual volume of mining and metal
lurgy, which show that the world pro-
duction OF gold last yea" reached the
enormous sum of more than 203 million
dollars. The like has never been known
before. The production of last year was
greater by 90 million dollars than in
the days when the virgin fields of Cali
fornia and Australia poured forth their
much as was produced III lne Hrst years
of this century, when the present single
gold standard was established III Eng
land.
More than this, the production of last
wear was almost twice as great as 1t
was about five or six years ago. Only two
or three years ago, as late even as tne
year of the panic and of the repeal OF the
silver purchase act the great English
reviews, in ponderouS eff ort to be SEN
sational. printed number of articles on
a prospective gold famine"
There was, they said, to be "a scram-
BILE for gold" and great many things
We're going to happen in consequence
thereof. Meanwhile in this country the
advocates of the free coinage of silver
were never weary of telling the tale OF
the fall of prices and of the approaching
ruin of industry and bankruptcy of the
! debtor class.
While these prophesies of disaster fill
! ed the air, the tide of gold production
/ was rising at a rate unknown to this
| generation. In 1887 all the world turned
( out but 106 millions. In 1890 it was only
seven millions more.
In the five or seven years since the
! supply has been doubled. 1t was 49,
900 the year of the panic, 179,000,000
in 1894, and 203, 90, 600 last year Indeed
the production of 1885 equaled the entire
product of any two decades down to
1910. In other words, as much of the yell
] low metal Nras prOdupp6 in wear as
in twenty.
This enormous increase came about
in the most unobtrusve and surprising
way. 1t was not due to the discovery
of new gold fields. nor was it due to the
closing of the mints against silver, nor
to any wonderful new strikes"
The revival began on the one hand
before the mints of the United States
and India had shut dow, and, on the
other, not until many years after the
discovery of the Johannesburg gold
fields. 1t began almost simultaneously
in the most widely separated parts OF
the earth. 1t is everywhere due to the
one cause cheapened production through
improved methods Of working and of eX-
traction
The introduction of the compressed
air drill, of dynamite in blasting the i'm
mense decline in the cost of all kinds o
mining supplies, and last and chief o
, all, the new cyanite process of gold ex
traction, have made possible the enor
nous yield of the last two or three years
At present mining supplies that cos
} 500 twenty years ago now cost hardl.
e-fourth of that sum, and gold ore tina
! does not average in value more than )
or ST ton may now be profitabl,
mined where it would have been dea
4 loss to do so eight or ten years ago.
The increase of gold production in tn
last FIVE wears has been about II De
- cent for each year.
Should the increase for the next fV
years be more than 10 per cent for eac
year, it will mean that the worlds gol
= production in the last year of this cen
tury will reach the stupendous total {
$320 900 900. 1t would mean totSt out
put for the next five years Of more tina
$1,000 600, 900 of gold.
e If this be added to the 800 million do
s lars produced in the last five years, W
d should then have the unthinkable toti
n Of more that billion dollars added
= the worlds stock of gold in single d.
cade. This is more than three times
much as all the gold turned out in II
Is half century preceding the "bonanZa
discoveries in California; while the al
1t nual production would be more tina
l. forty times as great as at the time OF
-, present gold standard was establishe
- This statement does not indicate II
's full proportions of the fact as 1t relat
r to the money question.
1t A very considerable proportion OF II
= gold supply of each year is used for con
70 mercial purposes, in what is known
4e the arts" in making engagement RIM
and tiaras for millionairesses and II
like. This consumption is almost fixt
quantity, since the price of gold is pra
i tically set by law and has not change
r to any considerable extent in this Gel
b, | tury.
A. The amount consumed in the arts