BIMETALLISM. 561 



the year 1816, and along with it a falling off in the yield of both 

 gold and silver. Its results I will give in the words of Alison, the 

 historian — " The eifects of this sudden and prodigious contraction 

 of the currency were soon apparent, and they rendered the 

 following years a period of ceaseless distress and suffering in the 

 British Isles." This period of depression and restricted currency, 

 now and then temporarily relieved by gleams of better times, con- 

 tinued till the middle of the century. The gold discoveries of 

 California and Australia then opened up a new era of prosperity 

 and progress. From an average of £10,000,000 annually the 

 supply of the precious metals rose to £35,000,000. Contracted 

 currency and low prices and jjoverty vanished together. We are 

 all cognizant of the tide of prosperity which then overflowed 

 Europe, carrying advancement in every department of human life. 

 Commerce, manufactures, science, arts, all partook of the general 

 progress, which for twenty years showed no sign of abatement. 

 There were, we all know, during these years, several financial 

 panics, but these wvre the excrescences of our inflated credit 

 system improper^ used in the speculative mania which prosperous 

 times foster. The rapid recovery in the amount of business and in 

 the prices of commodities proved that other causes than a diminu- 

 tion of the curi ency were at work. It is sufficient for our pur- 

 pose to note that prices were maintained throughout the entire 

 period, and at no time were prospects brighter nor the hopes of a 

 continuation of prosjDcrity more likely to be verified than in 1873, 

 when the demonetisation of silver in Germany and America came 

 like a blight to wither these hopes, and to inaugiu-ate a period of 

 decline more persistent and more depressing in all its aspects than 

 any which preceded it. Prices of all merchandise have fallen to a 

 lower level than that preceding 1850. Want of employment and 

 destitution among the working classes are as accentuated as they 

 were then, and both industrial and financial stagnation marks its 

 effects in the destruction of capital and depreciation of securities. 



INADEQUATE CAUSES. 

 It may seem strange that now, as well as in previous depressions, 

 all sorts of causes other than that now indicated, were credited with 

 the result. Their variety is only equalled by- the lack of argument 

 in support of their claims. Over-production is the never-failing 

 jack-in-the-box. springing up on all occasions. It suits the mind 

 of dealers in one commodity, and admits of illustration in individual 

 instances. We ask what becomes of the over-production ? By the 

 end of one year we are ready for another year's produce ! Why 

 are the indigent, the underfed, and underclothed so deplorably on 

 the increase ? Over-production in individual industries works its 

 own cure in the course of a year from economic causes, but we are 

 asked to believe in a continuous, senseless, and ruinous over- 

 production at a time when all industries are languishing, and a large 

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