The herald., 1896-10-11
DEMONSTRATIONS OF GOLD

tury terminating with 1870 the world
had produced but $529, 600 in gold,
coinage value, and $l,364, 69I 900 IN Sill
yer, or some forty ounces OF silver 10
one of gold; yet their ratio of values hal
varied but little, and the variation was
not increasing Why? Monometallists
have raked the world in vain for an an
swer. Bimetallists point to the only one
that is satisfactory, namely, the persist
ence of France in treating both metals
equally at her mints. But there were
grave apprehensions that France alone
could not maintain the parity, and so,
as aforesaid, all the world was hungry
for gold.
And in all the world there was not one
observer who dreamed that this hunger
would soon be far more than satiated,
and the philosopher who should have
predicted half of what was soon to come
would have been jeered at as a crazy
optimist. In 1s4S gold was discovered
in California, and three years later IN
Australia. The supply from Africa and
the sands of the Ural mountains had
previously increased. so that in 1S47S 1t
was equal to that of silver. But how
trifling was this increase to what fol-
lowed. In 1S49 there was still a slight
excess of silver production, and in 1850
the proportion was but $44, 100000 of
gold to 9,0000 900 in silver. Then gold
production went forward by great leaps
and bounds. How much was produced
Well, the estimates vary greatly. Soet-
beer places the amount at 81, ,407 900 coo
by the close of 1850; but Tooke and New
marche have put it about 500, 900 600
less. In the same era the production
of silver varied but trifle from $40 000.-
900 year, A committee of the United
States senate, appointed for investigat-
ing the facts, reported that in the
twelve years ending with 1850 the gold
produced was s1,339, 400, 900; and in the
next thirteen years, ending with 1873,
it was $1,411, ,S25.o0O. Thus, in the thir-
teen years following the California dis
covery the stock of gold in the word
was doubled, and in the twenty-five
years ending with 1873 it was more than
tripled. Several economic writers have
made the statement very much stronger
than this, and M. Chevalier, in his ia =
nous argumnt for the demonetization
of gold, written in 1857, declares that the
production of gold as compared with
silver had increased fivefold in six years
and f1fteenfold in forty years, and that,
owing to the export of silver to Asia and
it's use in the arts, there would, in very
little while, be no possible method of
maintaining the parity of the two met
ais in money at any ratio which would he
honest and profitable.
And what was the real fact? The ra =
tio, which i'll 1S49 was 1878 of silver 70
l of gold in the London market, and the
same in 1850 never sank below 1913 to
1. and never rose above the ratio of 1S49
till after silver was demonetized Why
this wonderful steadiness? The answer
is easy In the eight years of 1885,
France imported gold to the value of
3,0S2, 900, 900 f. or s616, 900 900, and export
ed silver to the value of s293, ,000, 900; in
short. her bullion operations amounted
to $909000,000. She stood it without n
CULVER; she grew and prospered as
never before. She absolutely refused to
change her ratio. Her mints stood open
to all the gold and silver of the world,
and thus did she save the world from a
great calamity.
Scarcely, however, had the golden
flood begun when the moneyed classes
and those with fixed incomes raised u
loud cry From the laboring producers
no complaint was heard. They never
complain of increased coinage. In the
United States we knew nothing of this
clamor, for we then had no creditor
class, no great amount of bonds, and