Birmingham state herald., 1896-09-02
UNDERPRODUCTIoN OF GOLD AND
 SILVER.

It is notion very common among even intelligent people, who have not ac- cess to the records, that the mines of the world are producing all, and even more than all, the gold and silver needed
 by the world. This idea of the over production of the precious metals, and especially of silver is advanced and urged by godites for purposes plain enough without mention. It is only a
 sample of the stock of falsehoods which they use to supply their lack of facts.
 That there is no truth in any such as- sertion may be easily shown by the most reliable statistics known, compiled by men who favor gold monometallism. The figures below are taken directly or com puted from those given in the report of
 the director of the United States mint for 1895, or from Muhleman's Monetary Systems of the World" published in
 1895 by the deputy assistant treasurer of the United States at New York. These | figures cover the worlds production and | consumption of gold and silver from | 1S73 when silver was so generally de- | monetized and denied free coinage, to | 1894, inclusive. This has been the period | of much the greatest production of both | metals ever known.
 Let us first examine the facts with re- gard to silver.
 The hints of the world actually coined into money during the time mentioned silver worth at coinage value $2,756,423,- 015. In addition to this, under the Sher- man act of 1890, silver bullion was | bought and deposited in the United | States treasury, against which treasury notes were issued to the amount of its l cost for money use, thereby practically | coining it. of which there still remains unconed bullion worth at coining value l SIS 900 000, which is to be added to the | silver actually coined. According to Soetber a great German authority, the | average annual consumption of new sil- | yer in the arts from 1871 to 1880 was $19- | 400, 900. In 1883 it was $21 100000, and has l been much moxe since. Take, however, 1 the lowest average, and we see that in | the time we are speaking of the world l used in the arts silver worth $426, 800, 900. | If now we sum up these items we get as | the total consumption of silver in the world from 1873 to 1884, inclusive, $9,S0l,- l ,O15. It is proper to deduct from this | the old silver coins recoined, which upon | the very high average of 1893 and 1894 | would give an aggregate reconage for | the twenty-two years of the sum of | $457, ,960, 192, and leave a total net con
 sumption of silver bullion alone for
 coinage and in the arts of $2,S43, 262, ,S23. | The entire production of silver from all the mines of the world within the same
 time was $2, ,754 452, 300. which, subtracted | from this total consumption, shows that | all the silver mines of the world have | fallen short of meeting the demands of
 the world for silver in twenty-two years
 $SS, ,S09 923 or more than $4,000,OO0 year;
 and for this deficiency the world has had
 to draw on it's old accumulations of sl- | yer made before 1873.
 In this deficiency or underproduction
 we have the explanation of the known
 fact that uncoined silver bullion has not
 only maintained it's relative value with | respect to all the other products of hu-
 man industry, except gold, but has l slightly gained in value, despite the bit 1 ter war waged upon 1t and it's demoneti- | ga ton in so many countries. Notwith- | standing all this, it has gained in relative l value simply because the demand for 1t | has exceeded the supply. The same fact
 exposes the idiotic falsity of the asser- | ton that free coinage in this country
 would produce silver de1uge. It might | stimulate, to some extent, the preduc- | ton of silver, but this is manifest and
 pressing need of the world as we have l just shown.
 Let us now see how the matter stands in respect to gold production and con- | sumption. The total coinage of gold in
 the world, from 1873 to 1894 inclusive, was | S3 4O4 703, ,469 The recoinage of gold
 money pieces during that time was s66S,
 Al, ,10O Deducting this, we have left as
 the amount actually coined from gold
 bullion g, ,736, ,562,369. To this Is to be add
 ed the consumption of new gold bullion
 in the arts within the same time, put by
 Soetber at $55, ,000 year from 1870 to
 lSSO and much more in later years. or a
 total of $1 ,223. 100000. We have thus
 total consumption of gold in the arts and
 coinage in twenty-two years of $3959 762- Ann rvl.