The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1896-08-08

92, the foreign, or commercial, ratio
forced itself upon us, and for forty.
two years, from 1892 to 1884, the
value of silver, as compared with
gold, iluctuated, often nearly rising
l6 to ], but never falling 10 to /. 1t
Is clear, then, that were two metals
are made a legal tender and given
free coinage at a fixed ratio of value,
the cheaper metal will circulate to
the exclusion of the dearer. The
gradual retirement of gold began al
most on the passage of the first coin
age act, and continued until 1884.
During this period there were less
than SIP, ,000,00 in gold coined, a
large per cent of which gasslost the
United States by export. Ia the
year Of 1914 gold coinage had de-
creased to,S77, 900. In 1916 tc So
900. After 1919 gold became an
unknown quantity as a circulating
medium in the United States.
During this period (l792-l934)
there were only 1,439,4 All silver dol.
lars coined; and after 1853 they
ceased to be coined. The stoppage
of silver coinage in all probability
was accomplished with a hope that q
scarcity of silver dollars might en-
hance their value. All this while
however, the mint was not idle, as il
had coined, by 1884, $50, 100000 oi
bali silver dollars, and lesser coins
The condition Of the currency al
this time was far from satisfactory.
Bimetallism was not success, and
the necessity Of change was in evi
dence. In 1882 committe on coin
age reported that it could not fins
I"That both metals have ever circu.
lated simultaneously, concurrently
and fneiscrlm inately in any countr,
where there were banks or none,
dealers; and they eptertain the con.
viction that the nearest approach tc
an lnvariable standard is its estab.
lishment in one metal, which metal
shall compose exclusively the cur.
rency OF large payments.
In 1884 another coinage act was pass
ed, changing the ratio at 16 10 /. AT
that time gold and silver were circu-
lating in England at the alto of &C.. 6
20 /. 'rh@o ~ ritl-h.-~a~,s-, sl,ss. 4isa
coinage act Of 1902 uudervalued
gold and the act Of 1884 undervalued
silver, practically placing The coun-
try on gold basis. Under the new
act the history of the previous act
was repeated but this time il was
silver that began to drop from circu-
latton, when, in 1910, silver dollars
became scarce, and no longer played
any conspicuous part in our circula-
tion. This led TO the mint act of 49,
81, which changed the ratio again
and made il 10. 90 tol
Prior To the discovery of gold in
California tue worlds production of
gold and silver was about equal.
Between l84l and 1851 there were
about S33 ,000,0 900 of gold and S34.-
000,000 Of silver. But beginning
with lSl9 and continuing to 1851
enormous discoveries Of gold were
made, and from 1851 to 1855 the
worlds production Of goll was from
S38, 900, 900 to $40, 900, 900, annual.
ly, while the production of silver on
Iy increased from $34, 900, 900 TO $40,
100000. This unprecedented out
put Of gold served TO widen the
relation between the two monetary
metals, as the act of 1858, the first
step toward demonitlzavlon, will
show. This act reduced the weight
of the silver half dollar from 206 IA
grains OF standard silver TO 1872 grains
OF the same. Smaller coins were re-
duced in proportion. 1t is of inter
est to know that at about this time
there was scarce any coinage of silver
dollars, and practically no circula-
ton of them. In 1850 S47, 900 were
coined in 1851, $1,000; in 1852,
81, 100. In the same year there were
S56, 100000 of coined gold, $2,000,-
600 of which were in dollar pieces.
The total production Of gold from
1850 to 1870 was 50, 725, 900, 900,
four times as much as that of the
preceding twenty years.
Agitation over in Europe during
this period precipitated the interna-
tional money conference, which was
held at Paris 1867, and which deem
ed the adoption of gold standard
necessary to universal coinage. The
year l84l witnessed the defeat Of
France in the Franco Russian war
and her payment of an enormous