77 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



whether a pound sterling or a dollar would have bought more or 

 less of a given number of bushels, yards, or pounds at one time than 

 another. In all other respects they are little other than curiosities ; 

 inasmuch as if some articles in a given period have risen and others 

 have fallen in price, and if the fall of some and the rise of others can 

 be undoubtedly traced to the action of entirely different causes, the 

 grouping of these facts into the form of tables, and the endeavor to 

 reduce the sum of the respective changes to a common average, can 

 prove nothing whatever as to the cause or causes which have been 

 operative in producing the changes. And between such discordant 

 results effected by entirely diverse influences, there would, further- 

 more, seem to be no possibility of establishing an average ; for the 

 price of some articles, whose use has been superseded or impaired by 

 change of fashion or new inventions, may fall nearly or quite to zero, 

 while the price of others, by reason of increased demand or inter- 

 rupted supply, may rise almost to infinity by comparison ; and be- 

 tween such extremes there may be any number of gradations. 



All, therefore, that can be confidently affirmed in respect to the ex- 

 tent of the recent depression of prices is, that comparing the data for 

 1885-86 with those of 1866-'76, the decline has been extraordinary 

 and has affected most articles and most countries ; and that the esti- 

 mate of Mr. Sauerbeck (before referred to), of 30 per cent as the 

 average measure or extent of the decline, is not excessive. 



It seems almost unnecessary to remark, that a fall of prices, al- 

 though commonly so considered, can not, in any comprehensive dis- 

 cussion, be regarded as in any sense a primary cause of economic dis- 

 turbances ; but that here again something antecedent in the nature of 

 a cause or causes, more or less general, must be sought for in explana- 

 tion. And of such causes, two only that are worthy of attention have 

 been suggested : First, a great multiplication and cheapening of com- 

 modities through new conditions of production and distribution, which 

 in turn have been mainly due to the progress of invention and dis- 

 covery ; and, second, that the precious metal used for standard money, 

 viz., gold, has, through relative scarcity, owing to diminished produc- 

 tion and increased demand, greatly appreciated in value; in consequence 

 of which a given amount of gold buys more than formerly ; or, what is 

 the same thing, the price or purchasing power of commodities, in com- 

 parison with gold, has fallen. 



As to which of these two causes has been most influential in occa- 

 sioning the recent great decline in prices, the best authorities who have 

 investigated the subject, as is well known, widely differ. It is also 

 well recognized that the determination of this question is almost funda- 

 mental in the so-called bimetallic controversy ; the plea for an in- 

 creased use of silver as money being wholly predicated on an alleged 

 insufficiency in the supply of gold for effecting the world's exchanges, 

 while ample evidence of the scarcity of gold is claimed to be found in 



