The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-05-30
CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK
HOW THE GOLD DOLLAR WAS
SAVED FROM BECOMING A
FIFTY CENT DOLLAR.

@G@&99SS ~
Rothschilds could make the most o.
the drain on silver and then by bring
ing the realm to q gold corne 81
tight as to foreclose and sell out the
British people. Adam Smith, in hi
wealth of Nations" had amply ex
planned the first part Of this process
long before 1916 He said: The pre-
cious metals are q commodity which II
always has been, and still continues
to be extremely advantageous to carry
from Europe to India. There is not q
commodity which which brings q bet.
ter price there, which in proportion to
the quantity and commodities it costs
In Europe, will purchase or command
q greater quantity of labor and articles
in India. 1t is more advantageous too
to carry silver than gold, because in
China and the greater part of the other
markets of India, the proportion be
tween fine silver and fine gold, is but
9 ten, or at most twelve toone; where,
as, in Europe it is as fourteen to fifteen
to one.
At the time of English demonetiza,
ton, the mint ration was fifteen and
a quarter to one. England would buy
at the market price (uot the mint
price, at fourteen and a quarter to one,
and by sending it to the Orient make
large profits. But in 1876 France had
put the ratio fifteen and a half to one,
which in England owe valued gold.
This led the English Parliament, in
1898, to pass a provisional act restrict
ing the coinage Of silver, with the nat
ural tend ency 10 lower the market of
the money dealers for it,"
For thirty five years after the Eng
lish act of 1916 the very fates seemed
hitched to the house Of the Red Shield.
Spain's wars with her American col
onies cut off some four ffths of the
supply Of gold and silver, leaving too
little for the arts alone. But in 1848
the gold fields of California and Aus
trRlia were discovered. 1t could be
dug out Of the earth and converted at
open minis into legal tender money.
Thus the increase in the medium Of
exchange raised prices until the toll
and products Of the people, stood for
a fifth more Of the precious metals
than before the influx Of the new gold.
Geo. N Weston, who was Secretary
Of the U. 8. Monetary Commission of
1875, states in his Silver Q lestion"
that the increase Of money, filed bank
ers and bulIionists and b%ondholders
with alarm. As it increased in quan
tity, they saw the decrease Of its power
to buy and control other things. So
they declared war on gold, and their
cause was taken up by writer's like De
Quincy, ChevRlier, and McLsuren,
Chevalier wrote a series Of papers in
1S54-5 and which were collected in a
book called The Fall of Gold, " trans
lated from French into English by
Richard Golden. Holland had already
demonetized gold as early az 1647
Belgium followed in 1880. and Ger
many with Austria in 1887. They all
WCAO " buO GANC4 DaEAS.
Why was this9 Hear Chevalier's an.
swer in his Fall of G Id: In no di
rection can a new outlet be seen sum
GENTLY large to absorb the ~extraordi-
nary production Of gold which we are
now witnessing so as to prevent a fall
in its value. We must regard the fall
In its value as an event for which we
should prepare without loss OF time"
Under these appeals Of Chevalier and
others, several nations in Europe,
notably Germany, and Austria in 1857.
demonetiz9d gold. 1t is probable that
the movement in that direction would
have become universal in Europe, but
for the resistance Of France. It Yves
changed at least as early as 1865, into
a movement for the characterization of
silver. In the convention Of 1865 in
which the LATIN Union was formed.
Belgium, Italy and Switzerland in.
sisted st]renuously upon the adoption
Of the gold standard, but were over
ruled by France. But this change
from demonetizing gold to demonetiz
ing silver, was more a form than sub
stance. The object aimed at both was
through q disuse Of one Of the money !
metals to protect the money classes.
and those having fixed incomes against
a fall in the value of money, and a rise
in general price. This is the pith and
marrow of the monetary dis 3ussions of
the last thirty years." report U 8.
Monetary Commission, page 49,
When money is scarce it is dear, and
prices are proportionately low; when
tits plentiful prices are proportionately
high. There can be no escape from