FINANCES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



289 



Mr. Evarts, in behalf of the delegates of those 

 two countries, submitted, on the last day of the 

 session, the following declaration : 



The delegates of France and of the United States, 

 in the name of their respective governments, make 

 the following declarations : 



1. The depreciation and great fluctuations in the 

 value of silver relatively to gold, which of late years 

 have shown themselves, and which continue to exist, 

 have been, and are, injurious to commerce and to the 

 general prosperity, and tho establishment and main- 

 tenance of a fixed relation of value between silver and 

 gold would produce most important benefits to the 

 commerce of the world. 



2. A convention, entered into by an important 

 group of States, by which they should agree to open 

 their mints to free and unlimited coinage of both sil- 

 ver and gold, at a fixed proportion of weight between 

 the gold and silver contained in the monetary unit of 

 each metal, and with full legal-tender faculty to the 

 money thus issued, would cause and maintain a sta- 

 bility in the relative value of the two metals suitable 

 to the interests and requirements of the commerce of 

 the world. 



3. Any ratio, now or of late in use by any commer- 

 cial nation, if adopted by such important group of 

 states, could be maintained ; but the adoption of the 

 ratio of 155 to 1 would accomplish the principal ob- 

 iect with less disturbance in the monetary systems to 

 be affected by it than any other ratio. 



4. Without considering the effect which might be 

 produced toward the desired object by a lesser combi- 

 nation of states, a convention which should include 

 England, France, Germany, and the United States, 

 with the concurrence of other states, both in Europe 

 and on the American Continent, which this combina- 

 tion would assure, would be adequate to produce and 

 maintain throughout the commercial world the rela- 

 tion between the two metals that such convention 

 should adopt. 



After the conference had held but thirteen 

 sessions, upon the suggestion of the two Gov- 

 ernments of France and the United States at 

 whose instance it was convened, it was ad- 

 journed to April 12, 1882. In submitting the 

 proposition of adjournment, M. Denormandie, 

 a delegate of France, said : 



We can not disguise from ourselves that the obser- 

 vations just now submitted to you tend to nothing 

 less than to establish, at least virtually, that nothing 

 has been done hero but an imperfect, useless, and 

 empty work. 



Had the proposition submitted by Mr. Evarts 

 on behalf of France and the United States 

 been accepted, even as a unanimous expres- 

 sion of the opinion of the conference, it is very 

 doubtful if it would have received the sanction 

 of the United States Government. The chief 

 embarrassment under which the Government 

 has labored in the coinage of silver since 1878, 

 has been the lack of intrinsic value in silver; 

 eighteen ounces being hardly equal in value to 

 one ounce of gold, although by law sixteen 

 ounces of it are declared to be equal to one of 

 gold, and any proposition looking to further 

 reducing this lawful equivalent would hardly 

 be sustained. Should the proposition obtain, 

 however, all our present silver dollars would 

 be undervalued and would either be melted 

 down for bullion or shipped from the country. 

 There is not much reason to believe that the 

 coinage of all the silver which could be used in 

 VOL. xxi. 19 A 



circulation in all the countries named would 

 materially enhance its value, though perhaps 

 it might check its depression, and the country 

 would soon have a currency based upon silver 

 whose dollar would be of even less value than 

 the present one, leading to complications, not to 

 say repudiation and dishonesty. 



The question of the future coinage of the 

 country is at best fraught with many serious 

 difficulties, and there is but little hope that the 

 further session of the convention as proposed 

 can give us relief. Silver is not coined to-day 

 by any European power without restrictions, 

 and this country can not well give it unrestrict- 

 ed coinage here, without making' our ports the 

 dumping-grounds for all the silver of Europe 

 now waiting for a market. On the other hand, 

 an entire cessation of silver coinage by the 

 United States, and a complete return to the 

 single standard of gold, would likely be fol- 

 lowed by like action in self-protection by all 

 the European powers, thus for ever barring 

 silver from circulation except as a subsidiary 

 coin for making change, a result, it is believed, 

 which would temporarily, at least, seriously 

 disturb the monetary affairs of the world. 



In any future discussion concerning the circu- 

 lating medium of a country, the use of checks 

 in making payments will doubtless be con- 

 sidered as an important factor. In this country 

 especially has the use of checks for such pur- 

 poses been extensively employed, reducing, to 

 that extent, the necessity for money of any 

 kind for circulating purposes. 



In the London "Banker's Magazine" for 

 November, Mr. Pownall estimates the per- 

 centages of receipts of coin, notes, and checks, 

 in several European localities, as below, to 

 which has been added those of New York city, 

 as stated by the Comptroller of the Currency : 



Additional statistics published by the Comp- 

 troller of the Currency show that of $52,118,- 

 185, received by 1,895 banks outside of the prin- 

 cipal cities of the United States, 81'7 per cent 

 was in checks. In the large cities the receipts 

 in checks were over 90 per cent. Such an ex- 

 tensive use of checks in business must neces- 

 sarily diminish largely the necessity of actual 

 money for circulation. 



It will be noticed that there were outstand- 

 ing about $5,000,000 of gold certificates. These 

 certificates were issued upon deposits of gold, 

 and are redeemable on presentation in that 

 metal. Under a decision, or at least with the 

 consent of the Treasury authorities, national 

 banks have counted these certificates as part 

 of their lawful reserve, though they are not 

 legal tender, and are receivable by the Gov- 

 ernment only in payment of duties on im- 



