CHANGES IN VALUES OF PRECIOUS METALS. 177 



and deprived of some ancient prerogative, the disturbances in question 

 are the same in character as have always accompanied the use of a de- 

 preciated, fluctuating currency, with this additional and novel pecul- 

 iarity — namely, that while, heretofore, depreciation of currency has 

 been due to the forced issue of redundant and irredeemable paper 

 money or debased coin, and has been local in its influence, the present 

 experience is due to a depreciation in the value of one of the precious 

 metals with reference to the other, and extends to many countries in 

 very different degrees. Let us particularize these disturbances, and 

 see how serious or otherwise have been their resulting influence. 



In the United States, all the evil which has thus far been experi- 

 enced has been solely from apprehensions of evil in the future, which 

 in turn have been occasioned by the circumstance that the United 

 States, in harmony with her protective policy, buys from the owners 

 of the (present) most productive and cheaply- worked silver-mines 

 in the world, silver bullion for coinage to the vahie of $2,000,000 

 monthly, irrespective of any current demand or necessity for such 

 coinage on the part of her own people. In the coinage system of 

 Great Britain the function of silver remains as it has for a long period, 

 almost as unimportant as that of copper. In Germany, " although the 

 imperial mark is now everywhere recognized as the standard, all Ger- 

 mans, whether they live in Bavaria, Prussia, or Hanover, are able to 

 sell their commodities with the consciousness that the ' marks ' they 

 receive in payment for them are good money, with the same j^urchas- 

 ing power, whether paid out as silver thalers or as gold crowns."* 

 Furthermore, at a meeting of the representatives of the various Cham- 

 bers of Commerce in Germany, in March, 1887, seventy-one chambers 

 to four voted against any change in the existing monetary policy of 

 the Empire. In the other states of Europe, the currencies of which are 

 on a specie-paying basis, the situation is substantially the same as in 

 Germany.f In exclusively silver-using countries, like India and Mexico, 

 the decline in the value of silver has not appreciably affected its pur- 

 chasing power in respect to all domestic products and services; but the 

 silver of such countries will not exchange for the same amount of gold 

 as formerly, and it might be supposed that, owing to this change in 



* Communication by a director of the Bank of England (Mr. H. H. Gibbs) to the " Dar 

 Kampf une die Wahrung," Berlin, April 30, 1886. 



f " There are no indications of any change in the policy of the fiscal authorities of the 

 several states visited by me (Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, and Holland) 

 which warrant any expectation that the subject of a bimetallic treaty for a common legal 

 tender, coupled with the free coinage of silver, will be seriously considered at the present 

 time by them. . . . 



" There is no indication that the subject of bimetallism has received any intelligent or 

 serious consideration, outside of a small circle in each country named, as a probable or 

 possible remedy for the existing causes of alleged depression in trade." — Report to the 

 President of the United States '■^On the Present Status of Bimeiallism in Europe" October, 

 1887, by Edward Atkinson. 



VOL. XXXII. — 12 



