The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-11-25
GREAT INCREASE
Of WORLDS GOLD
America Makes the
Largest Production.
THIS Is THE BANNER YEAR
EXTRAORDINARY COINAGE RE-
PORTED BY. THE MINT.
THIS Is THE BANNER YEAR
An Interesting Argument Is Also
Made in Support of the Main
tenance of the Single
Standard.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

The most important events of the fiscal
year in the world of Government hnance
! have been the contamination Oh the long
Planned resumption of specie pay us
| by Russia in gold, the reorganization OF
! the monetary system OF Japan with golu
| as the standard and the refusal OF the
| Government of India to cooperate with
the Governments of the United States ana
| France in an effort to establish bimeta4-
| lism by international agreement. 80
The gold coinage of the world in 1898
was the largest recorded, amounting In
value to S437, rs, 342, against $195, 899 olI IN
| 1896. OF the former sum l4b,6Z2,194 was
recoinage, and approximately 1921, 09l Jas a
! net addition to the stock of gold coins
/ The principal coinage was by The United
! States, Great Britain, Russia, Germany,
Austria-Hungary, France and Japan. Inc
I counted for by the preparations OF RuS-
| STA, Austria-Hungary and Japan Tor
| their monetary reforms: IN me case e Oh
| accommodating for years, much OF 1t In
| bars, was passed through the minis to
prepare 1t for circulation. The compile
| ton of Russa's plans for monetary re-
| form and the opening to the uses or
| commerce of her great gold reserve, SyS-
| tematcaily gathered year by year until 1t
is the greatest single hoard of treasure
the world ever saw, is in itself most not
| able event.
The development of Russia. her position
! as an exporter of breadstuffs her policy
of developing home manufactures, will all
| tend TO protect her stock of gold and
| make use Tor more. but her DrOduc-
ton is increasing, and unless she is about
! to enter a period of unprecedented activ-
| fty and development seems likely to sup
ply her needs.
Throughout the world. among all peo-
pies who are sufficiently civilized and am
Dltous to have international intercourse,
there is manifest a desire to bring their
own currencies into definite and stable re-
lauonS with the money of the peoples with
whom they trade. The exporter desires
that the money with which he buys at
home and the money with which he sells
abroad shall have a common unit of value.
| The manufacturer who is competing IN
foreign markets desires that the money
with which he buys raw materials and
labor at home and the money in which he
must quote prices abroad shall have re-
Iation to each other upon which he may
rely and calculate. If the monetary sys-
TENS of these countries have no common
until each nation, in ignorance or mis-
led independence, prefers IAN Independent
system of its own'-they will inevitably
vary in value to each other, and the
profits OF the international transaction we
are considering are subject to these varia-
tons. Such variations are, therefore, a
barrier to the trade between countries.
1t was TO escape from such fluctuations
of the Russian currency, which in 1892
reached 20 per cent and In 1881 Is per cent,
its paper money at the gold standard. For
the same reason Austria Hungary and
Japan have lately done likewise. For
the same reason India closed its minis
to the unrestricted coinage of silver, and
has been struggling since to hold its ru-
for this reason. that even Peru, with its
comparatively small foreign trade, has
closed It's minis to the unlimited coinage
of silver. 1t is for this reason that the
Government of France, while friendly to
an international agreement upon the BIZ
metallic money standard will not enter
tain any proposition that involves a pos
Sble separat ton Of her own currency
from the standard used by the other i'm
portant commercial nations of the world.
The enterpriSing peoples of the world
are not voluntarily assuming or remain
ing under conditions which put them at
a disadvantage in the keen rivalry that
statesmen find in every market. The en-
lightened judgment of time condemns
such a meaningless and burdensome re-
straint upon the exchanges Nor is there
any merit in the plea sometimes made
that inasmuch as most of country's
only small percentage of them interna
tional, therefore, the relations of its
money TO the money of other countries
is of equally small Importance. The truth
is that prices in all domestic sales are
related to prices in international trans
actions and cannot be separated from
them. The values of all goods that enter
into the common consumption of man
kind are international and cannot be eff
fected by money legislation. Legislation
can alter the value of local currency,
but the owner of goods of worldwide de-
mand simply raises or lowers his price
to correspond with the coinage value of
the money.
Clear as these principles seem to be
there are those everywhere who protest
III.
Certain narrow objections and sophisti-
cal doctrines become familiar. Some as
sert that the depreciation of a country
money has a good effect by stimulating
it's exports. The shipper sells his products
abroad for gold, converts the gold into
the currency of his country and as the
latter declines in value of course he gets
more of 1t. The net gain depends upon
his opportunity to work this deprecated
currency off on somebody else at it's old
value. In some countries the exporters
claim to have succeeded in doing this and
they are pleased and pronounce it a good
thing. 1t is said, for instance. that in
India, while the price of wheat and tea
In silver currency has advanced, the PLAN
tiers can still hire labor at about the
same wages as before Evidently if the
wage-earner consumes wheat and tea he
is not sharing the good thing.
1t is said that in Mexico manufacturers
and planters have enjoyed prosperity by
reason of the rising prices of their pro
ducts in silver while wages have adj
vanced but little. The question natur-
ally arises, Who buys these products?
Who consumes In those countries cotton.
flour, sugar, shoes. meat and the other
things which in any country are certain to
rise as the local currency declines? 1t is
evident that the stimulus to enterprise
which these countries have enjoyed has
been precisely such stimulus as the United
states would nave II the wage earners
of this country would agree to-
gether to accept % or so
per cent reduction in their favor That
might truly stimulate the export trade
for a time. AS a matter of wage reCuc-
ton, depreciating currency may be ac-
cepted as effective: AS a policy to slim
ulate exports it Is in some cases effective,
but temporary, for If it ceases to depre-
ciate wages and other expenses will
gradually withdraw themselves to it, the
importer losing his premium, while If 1t
continues to depreCiate it will eventually
become worthless and all it's influence
benef1cent or otherwise, will perish with
it. AS a policy upon which to build ma
TONS trade and prosperity 1t begins in
fraud and ends in failure
Reviewing the efforts of the Wolcott
International Bimetallic Commission
the Director says the sentiment in ia
vor of bimetallic money standard
supported by international agreement
had found expression not only by the
legislative bodies of France and Ger
many, but of Great Britain, and 1T had,
therefore, seemed opportune that
conference should be had with view
to ascertaining what concerted action
might be agreed upGA. Mr.. Roberts
adds:
A single nation acting alone is certain
to lose the dearer metal entirely and re-
ta4 Cr,1x- he oh