THE INFLOW OF GOLD 249 



in equal measure. This process affects prices of commodities, 

 and adds always to the consumption which again gives im- 

 petus to production and trade. 



No one can deny that the golden inflow contributes to 

 the currency a share growing more rapidly than the total 

 circulation, all at parity ; that it lifts prices and wages, incites 

 activity in industry and trade, and pushes enterprise forward, 

 while it also tempts to undue inflation of commercial and 

 stock jobbing credit. How do these influences bear upon 

 our world relations? First of all, our surpassing wealth in 

 gold has placed our national credit on a plane above that 

 of all other countries, and never before held by that of any 

 government. British consols bearing 2J per cent interest, 

 long the foremost type of credit, have recently sold below 

 87, and German 3J per cent consols at 90, while consols of 

 the United States bearing only 2 per cent, range from 108 to 

 110, and the loan of 1925 commands 136. This American 

 republic alone among nations always in time of peace reduces 

 its debt, and after a war makes rapid payment of the cost. 

 Only unbridled folly, not conceivable, can shake this solid 

 structure. 



Obviously the supremacy of our national credit adds to 

 the strength of the republic in commercial credit, general 

 esteem and international influence in all the world. We fear 

 no evil from exports of gold, for we can well spare more than 

 Europe can pa}^ for in American obligations, in merchandise 

 or in any form of securities. The productiveness of our people 

 justifies this rank. In manufactures the American people 

 are far and away beyond rivalry. Against our thirteen bil- 

 lion dollars of annual product, Great Britain shows $4,263,- 

 000,000, France $2,900,000,000, Germany, $3,357,000,000, 

 and Austria-Hungary, $1,596,000,000. These four great na- 

 tions turn out in manufactures, $12,116,000,000 a year, or 

 a billion dollars less than does this country alone. The scale 

 of living in the United States is such that we consume a great 

 deal of what we make. We spend more than the same num- 

 ber of people anywhere else on earth. Our agriculture helps 

 to feed Europe, indeed many of its inhabitants would starve 

 without our grain and meats. How much of the products 



