STATE PAPERS. 



45$ 



experience, they thought it proper 

 to inquire more particularly into 

 the circumstances connected with 

 each of those two facts ; and to 

 hear, from persons of commercial 

 practice and detail, what explana- 

 tions they had to ofi'er of so un- 

 usual a state of things. 



It will be found by the evidence, 

 that the high price of gold is as- 

 cribed, by most of the witnesses, 

 entirely to an alleged scarcity of 

 that article, arising out of an un- 

 usual demand for it upon the con- 

 tinent of Europe. This unusual 

 demand for gold upon the conti- 

 nent is described by some of thera 

 as being chiefly for the use of the 

 French armies, though increased 

 also by that state of alarm, and 

 failure of confidence, which leads 

 to the practice of hoarding. 



Your committee are of opinion, 

 that, in the sound and natural state 

 of the British currency, the foun- 

 dation of which is gold, no increas- 

 ed demand for gold from other 

 parts of the world, however great, 

 or from whatever causes arising, 

 can not have the effect of producing 

 here, for a considerable period of 

 time, a material rise in the market 

 price of gold. But, before they 

 proceed to explain the grounds of 

 that general opinion, they wish to 

 state some other reasons, which 

 alone would have ledthemtodoubt 

 wiiethcr, in point of fact, such a 

 demand for gold as is alleged, has 

 operated in the manner supposed. 

 If there were an unusual demand 

 for gold upon the continent, such 

 as could influence its market price 

 in this country, it would of course 

 influence also, and indeed in the 

 first instance, its price in the con- 

 tinental markets ; and it was to be 

 expected that those who ascribed 

 the high price here to a great de- 



mand abroad, would have been 

 prepared to state that there was a 

 corresponding high price abroad; 

 Your committee did not find that 

 they grounded their inference up- 

 on any such information ; and so 

 far as your committee have been 

 enabled to ascertain, it does not 

 appear that during the period when 

 the price of gold bullion was rising 

 here, as valued on our paper, there 

 was any corresponding rise in the 

 price of gold bullion in the market 

 of the continent, as valued in their 

 respective currencies. 



With respect to the alleged de- 

 mand for gold upon the continent 

 for the supply of the French ar- 

 mies, your committee must fur- 

 ther observe, that, if the wants of 

 the military ciiest have been lat- 

 terly much increased, the general 

 supply of Europe with gold has 

 been augmented by all the quan- 

 tity which this great commercial 

 country has spared in consequence 

 of the substitution of another me- 

 dium of circulation. And your 

 committee cannot omit remarking, 

 that though the circumstances 

 which might occasion such an in- 

 creased demand may recently have 

 existed in greater force than at 

 former periods, yet in the former 

 wars and convulsions of the conti- 

 nent, they must have existed in such 

 a degree as to produce some effect. 

 The two most remarkable periods 

 prior to the present, when the 

 market price of gold in this coun- 

 try has exceeded our mint price, 

 were in the reign of king William, 

 when the silver coin was very 

 much worn below its standard, and 

 in the early part of his present 

 majesty's reign, when the gold 

 coin was very much worn below 

 its standard. In both those pe- 

 riods, the excess of the market 



