1 84 Mr. Faraday on 



cent, increase in the production of the yellow metal, was due 

 to the free mintage of both metals at a fixed ratio, and that 

 the enormous divergence of 40 per cent, during a subsequent 

 period of greatly diminished strain in the relative pro- 

 duction is a consequence of the abandonment of such free 

 mintage. 



In order to ascertain the relative variations of value, 

 however, we must adopt Jevons's plan of testing by the prices 

 of commodities. As regards the " agony " period of gold, 

 Jevons conclusively showed that both silver and gold were 

 depreciated during that period by the increase in their joint 

 volume as money through the gold discoveries in California 

 and Australia. The prices of commodities in gold were 

 raised 16 or 18 per cent, and as the mutual exchangeable 

 value of gold and silver remained steady in the Paris 

 market, and, therefore, practically steady in the London 

 market, both metals were clearly depreciated to the same 

 extent in terms of commodities. 



Coming now to the "agony" period of silver I have 

 extended the table testing the two metals by wheat — the 

 favourite .standard of Adam Smith and the older economists 

 generally — which I presented to the Society in 189 1. In 

 considering absolute variations in the value of either gold 

 or silver, it would, of course, be desirable to take a series 

 of commodities for comparison. But in estimating the 

 relative variation in the purchasing power of the two metals, 

 wheat alone is quite sufficient to yield correct results. In 

 extending my former table, I have worked out also the 

 respective quantities at the average prices of the period 

 1845-50, before the disturbing influence of the gold dis- 

 coveries, and prefixed the results to the table as a base line; 

 and I have carried forward the comparison to the present 

 date. 



