Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1896-08-05
SILVER OF CHILE.
Her Struggle After Fall In Price
of Silver.
THE WAGE FARMERS AFFECTED.

Chile's History Constitutes One of the
Most Instructive Chapters In the His
She Tried to Maintain tile Equal BIZ
metallic Coinage of Gold and silver.
Silver Fell and Gold Flew-Gold Now
Resumed.
The history of most countries which
have tried the silver basis during the
present century has been history of
constant fluctuations in the value of
money, changes in prices, great profits
to shrewd spectators and losses to
wage earners. Nearly every such coun-
try has made an effort, when its re-
sources have permitted, to establish the
gold basis, or, when upon paper basis,
to resume specie payments i'll gold
alone
One of the most instructive chapters
in the history of free coinage of silver
is that which relates to the experience
Of Chile, says the New York Herald.
The people of that highly intelligent,
wealthy and compact republic have suf-
fered within narrow area all the re-
suit Of experiments with bimetallism,
have tested the impossibility of main
tanning it, and have experienced the
fall in the real wages of labor and the
confusion of foreign exchanges which
inevitably follow such policy.
Chile endeavored, like France and
other foreign countries, to maintain the
ht,,,n FOL Of
silver The mints were opened to
both metals by an act of January, 1851.
The ratio was not quite is to |, but a
little less friendly to silver, being 1859
to /. This slight difference protected
Chile during several years after BIZ
metallism became an acknowledged fail
ure in France.
France was substantially upon the
single silver standard prior to the open
ing of the Californian and Australian
mines. These mines increased the pro-
duct of gold so greatly that gold became
less valuable than silver, at the French
coinage ratio of J5la to ], and was the
only metal offered at the mints.
frances bimetallists insisted, like
American bimetallists today, that gold
valued at 5f. by the coinage laws could
not fall below silver francs in value, be-
cause it was worth that at the mints.
This did not prevent silver going
above the coinage value and disappear
ing from circulation as absolutely as
though it had been wiped up with a
sponge. 1t was this condition of things
which made gold the chief medium of
in France, and kept it in cir
in Chile so long as the differ
ence between the market and the coin.
ing value Of gold and silver was not
great.
Chile began to experience the same
strange fluctuations in the coinage of
the two metals which was experienced
by the countries of the Latin Union
after 1874. Silver fell from 49, IL to in
1875 to lT.s0 to in 1876 and H. 96 to l
in 1878. The fact that the two metals
were equal at the mints did not pre-
vent the sudden arrest of the presenta-
ton of gold and its heavy expectation
The amount OF gold minted in Chile in
1870 was 80, ,434 pesos, and the amount
Of silver was 2, i5l ,735 pesos. The value
Of the gold peso was then about 81 in
United States gold coin. The mechan-
cal forces of the mint were scarcely suffi-
'ient for coming 250,0D0 pesos per
while silver was imported and
offered for coinage at the rate of nearly
100000 pesos month. The govern
nent was compelled to suspend to re-
Jeption of silver while nine new ma
chimes were put i'll operation the keep
pace with the required coinage.
The evils of specie suspension We're
and enhanced by the fall in
he price of silver War with Spain
the suspension Of silver pay
nents by the national bank of Chile on
Sept. "a, 1869, but specie payments were
promptly within the time fixed
oy law in 1865, while the country was
still upon the gold basis. The fight of
gold from the country after 1874 tended
20 create contraction of the currency.
which was met by increased issues of
oank notes.
Forced loans by the government in
The form of bank notes. issued for pub
ic uses rather than for the legitimate
purposes of business, drove paper below
par In silver and led the country in
nire from which escape grew daily
more difficult with the steady fall in the
price Of silver The government made
| bad matter worse by putting out its
)wn paper issues III 1870 and 1880, which
we're swelled by the issues of President
3almaceda during his attempt to crush
he Congressional party
The Congressional party, after their
yictory in August, 1891, took heroic
steps to restore the parity of coin and
paper, but found the task vastly difficult
because of the fall in the price of silver.
Silver having become the money of cir
,ulation just before the Issue of paper,
here was no reason to believe that the
paper would be redeemed in anything
out silver. The downward course of the
paper, therefore, followed almost ex-
,ctly the downward course of silver,
1nly at slightly lower level. There is
40 reason to doubt that if ultimate re-
iemption had been expected in gold the
paper would have remained nearer to
the gold line and would have been in
recent years above parity with silver.
The persistent fall in the value of sill
rer made resumption of specie pay
nents in that metal little better than
upon paper basis. The
Chilian government, therefore, deter
mined to resume specie payments in
gold, but at a rate of exchange which
would accord with the actual value of
;he paper in gold at about the time of