Birmingham state herald., 1896-03-15
$Extremes during Napoleonic wars.

sExtremes during Napoleonic wars
 An examination of chart E will confirm the lesson of these figures. For so years the line of market value of silver as com pared with gold runs almost coincidently with the line representing the ratio on which the metals were coined at the mint of France.
 Mr. Williams-I want to ask the gen tleman question for information That, as I understand it, is the price of silver bullion in-the London marketP
 MT. TowIfe-In the London market
 Mir. Williams-It did not vary at all in the French market?
 MT. Towne-The gentleman from Mis- sissippi is right. Sir Henry Huoks Gibbs, for 40 years director of the Bank of Eng land, some time its governor, a mono metallic gold delegate to the international convention of 1878 and bimetallist now and for the remainder of his life, declares and he had personal knowledge for many years-that from 1903 to 1873, notwith- standing the fact that the law requires nothing of the sort to be done, there was not a day when any person could not go to the Bank of France and get either gold or silver for the other at the mint ratio.
 And here it occurs to me to call atten ton to the fact that hints do not, under systems of free coinage, purchase bullion, nor do they exchange necessarily coin of one metal for bullion of the other. have seen on this floor indications that some gentlemen appear to think that one way we should lose our gold-if we opened the hints to silver-would be in handing it over to designing individuals who should bring silver bullion to the mint and "de- mand'' gold. The open mint existD merely to coin the bullion brought to 1t and pass 1t back in coin to the owner. The govern ment stamp cannot create value. Whether a coin when stamped shall be effectual to pass at the value it claims to repr"Fen will depend upon the use 1t can command. In this respect I agree wholly with tfe honorable gentleman from Maine MT. Dingleyb who opened this debate, and who now does me the honor of listening to mo. The whole question of maintain ing freely coined silver at parity with gold is one simply of giving it enough to do, subiecting 1t to large enough demand.
 But to return to the French coinage. The figures above given are authoritative. In considering them it must be remem- bered that they are London market quota tions, and that coinage in France was free, but not gratuitous. All gold and silver brought to the mint was coined as desired, but charge was made for ex- pense of coinage of three-tenths of 1 per cent on gold and # per cent on silver. The total transportation cost on coin and bullion during the most of that time must have been somewhere about K per cent. In addition to this, interest was lost on the value of the bullion while at the mint for coinage. These considerations are en- tirely adequate to explain the small varia- tions in the bullion market In London. Indeed these variations show that gold and silver must have circulated side by side in France.
 The following table, on the authority of the distinguished economist, J. Barr Rob- ertson, shows, in five year periods, the French coinage during the time in ques- tion of both gold and silver. It is given in English money because taken from an English document: