176 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sion by the states of the Latin Union of the free coinage of the silver 

 five-franc pieces, also unquestionably favored and intensified the de- 

 cline in the price of silver thus inaugurated, by creating an apprehen- 

 sion (or scare) among the bullion-dealers as to what might further 

 happen. 



The continued decline in the value of silver in more recent years — 

 i. e., from an annual average of ^\\d. in 18T9 to ^^%d. in 1886 — may 

 also be rationally referred to a continuance of the same influences. The 

 annual product of silver has continued to increase — i. e., from S96,- 

 000,000 in 1879 to $124,900,000 in 1886, or $762,000,000 in the aggre- 

 gate for this period. No one knows what is to be the product of silver 

 in the future ; but it is reasonable to believe that, if the price of silver 

 were to advance materially, its product would be largely augmented. 

 Recent reports made under the auspices of the Mexican Secretary of 

 the Interior, and published in the "Mexican Economist" (1886), claim 

 that the cost of working the argentiferous lead-ores of Mexico, which 

 "exist in prodigious abundance," has been greatly reduced within 

 recent years, and that under a better system of taxation and with an 

 adequate supply of capital the annual product of the silver-mines of 

 Mexico could be quickly doubled and even trebled. Furthermore, an 

 average decrease of at least thirty per cent in the prices of the commodi- 

 ties that represent the great bulk of the world's production and con- 

 sumption (comparing the data of 1885-'86 with those of 1867-'77) has 

 in itself been equivalent to largely or entirely supplementing any 

 increased demand for the use of silver and gold as money, consequent 

 upon any increase in the volume of the world's business during the 

 same period. The constantly-increasing tendency of civilized countries 

 to use less and less of coin in the transaction of business, and the con- 

 tinued invention and successful application of numerous and unprece- 

 dented devices for economizing the use of metallic money, must at the 

 same time have been equivalent to a constant comparative increase in 

 the supply of precious metals for coinage purposes. Still another factor 

 exercising a disturbing influence on the price of silver, and preventing 

 its price recovery, undoubtedly grows out of the fiscal relations of 

 Great Britain with India. The regular annual sales at London of 

 India Council bills — the character of which has been heretofore ex- 

 plained (see page 173) — are in the nature of forced sales of silver, and 

 at present average about 845,000,000 per annum. IIow much effect 

 these sales, at the point where the silver-bullion trade of the world 

 centers, have had in depressing the market price of silver, is undeter- 

 mined ; but that it has not been unimportant can not well be doubted. 

 Attention is next asked to the character of the economic disturb- 

 ances which have resulted from the change since 1873 in the relative 

 values of gold and silver. Omitting from consideration the extreme 

 views on this subject, in Avhich silver seems to be regarded in the sense 

 of a personality tliat has been unjustly and designedly " outlawed " 



