82 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



between different objects, money included, our gold is depre- 

 ciated by the duties on imports just that much below its natu- 

 ral value. In exchange for importables, the gold will be de- 

 preciated to the extent of the average per cent, of the duties 

 upon them ; but in exchange for exportables it will not be 

 depreciated at all, so that ior general purposes it will be de- 

 preciated only to the same per cent, that the average per cent. 

 of duties bears to the total natural value of both exportables 

 and importables added together. Thus: if the two classes of 

 commodities be each represented by 100, and 45 be added by 

 the duties, the per cent, advance on importables will be 45, 

 but the advance on the two aggregated will be but 22^- per 

 cent. 



To determine what the advance is in average prices and the 

 resulting depreciation of gold, is a difficult problem only be- 

 cause of the difficulty in ascertaining the exact value of im- 

 portables and exportables, respectively, the extent to which 

 they are respectively subjects of exchange, and the extent to 

 which exchanges of real estate, which is neither exportable 

 nor importable, may modify the result. By reference to ac- 

 credited statistics we may, however, arrive approximately at 

 least, at the true depreciation of gold from the cause stated; 

 the object of this paper being rather to develope a principle 

 than to arrive at exact results from its operation. 



The average per cent, of duties on imports, as determined 

 by dividing the total amount of revenue derived from them 

 by the total amount of imports, is about 45 per cent. This 

 per cent, (with slight modifications) is added to the price of all 

 importables, whether foreign or domestic. Now what we wish 

 to know is, what per cent, this adds to ihe average price of 

 importables and exportables aggregated. 



According to the census returns for 1870, tlie total valua- 

 tion of manufactured products, deducting $90,000,000, 

 the product of mines, and adding $462,277,587 of actual 

 imports is $4, 004,703, 029 



Peduct from this the tariff element in the valuation (45 

 per cent 2, 072, 116, 363 



