The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-09-11

1921. I-l5.95 1869. l-l5.6O
1882. I-l5.72 ls7l..... .l-l5.57
1888 ....... l-l5.93 1878. l-l5.92
lS43....... l-l5.93
These were prices in the London
bullion market, and Mr.. Gitfen pre-
sants them as evidence that gold and
! silver coins were not at par in France.
Yet, during all this period, there never
was time when the difference between
the French mint price and the London
price more than equalled the cost OF
shipment to France and the charges at
the French mint
Silver coin was always at par with
g I'D in France. The price of either in
l. mdon never fell below the point at
which it became in the slightest degree
profitable to melt French coin and ship
it to London. If further evidence be
needed, it may be found in. the fact
that every year both gold and silver
were brought to the French mints and
coined, though the charge for coming
gold was (until 1850 three-tenths of
one per cent. and the charge for coin
ing silver was one and onc-half per
cent. In 1898, when Mr.. Gifftn says
that the premium on gold in London
averaged l.6 per cent. above the French
legal rates, 81 100000 in gold was
brought to the French mints and paid
the mint charge in order to obtain the
interest bearing and debt-paying priv
ileges of money. To say that SO much
gold would have been brought to the
mints under these conditions if gold
had bullion value greater than its
coin value, is to say that the French
bullion dealers were out of their senses
| then.
| is true that when either gold or
silver was demanded for export, the
bullion dealers demanded slight
|
premium lor the metal wanted, but
this premium Was never so great as
that received by the bullion dealers of
| New York for silver currency in Au-
gust 1898. Yet. in that month, as every
one remembers, when these dealers
were selling silver currency at a prem
ium of one per cent. over gold and
! three or four per cent. over certified
checks, checks, gold and silver were
all at par in ordinary business trans
actions.
SO it was in France. The size of
the premiums asked for either metal
by the bullion dealers always furnish
ed evidence that the two metals were
at par in ordinary transactions.
When the Australian and Califor-
nian discoveries, in ls4S, turneda veri-
table flood of gold upon the mints Of
France, the banking element predicted
that the Government ratio could not
be maintained The product of gold,
they pointed out, had increased ten
fold; the labor cost of mining gold had
been reduced to much less than one
half. Gold therefore, they said, must
be demonetized or France would have
a tiitv-ccnt dollar. The French free
coinage law was maintained. gold con-
| tinued to he admitted to the currency
and its value could fall no faster than
the value of all currency, whether gold
or silver fell. Four years after the
flood Of gold began, Chevalier, the
greatest Of the monometallists, describ-
ed the workings of the law as follows:
One is surprised at first that pro
duction Of gold so vast, so colossal, as
has been noted, in comparison with
what had been seen before, has not vet
caused lower ratio of gold to the 9th
er precious metals. * But there
is intervening a powerful cause which
temporarily holds back gold in its fall.
! France offers thus far an indefinitely
! great market upon the basis of kilo-
gram of gold for l5l Of silver. For
the stranger who owes Il Frenchman a
certain number of francs-that is. a
certain number of times y grams of
silver-acquits himself legally by Civ
ing him Il quantity Of gold l55 times
as small. Whenever the merchant in
precious metals wishes to exchange his
gold for silver, he obtains almost the
same terms; for, in addition to the
quantity indicated by the ratio of l55
to he has only to pay the premium,
and by force up to this present that
has been slight, and must remain so
for some time yet, for Il reason easy to
perceive. SO long as there remains
much silver in France, people residing
there. to whom the pieces of metals
come, ought to esteem themselves hap
py to exchange it for gold at prem
! ium very small over the ratio estab-
! lished by the law of 1903, since for the
payments they have to make they can
/ not make their creditors take it for
more than the proportion of gold indi-
Gated by the law, | to l59. For the
same reason it will be impossible at
London, at Brussels and Hamburg, at
New York, or any place, on the gen
eral market for gold to be worth much
less than l5a its weight in silver
How any one can read thisand main-
! tain that the French law did not main-
tain gold and silver at this legal ratio
for all ordinary business transactions
passes comprehension.-N. y. Jour"a'.