40 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



far from there having been a rise in the value of gold, there has 

 been an appreciable fall, he might be thought to take an extreme 

 position. To that position, however, a careful examination of the 

 facts has led me ; and this article is written to present the evi- 

 dence on the question.* 



To ascertain the value of go]d, two sources of inquiry are open : 

 First, what is the comparative standing of gold in the mass of 

 commodities, such as labor, land, agricultural products, manufac- 

 tured products, etc. ? Second, what are the influences directly 

 affecting the value of gold, such as rate of production and rela- 

 tive demand for its use ? In considering the evidence on the first 

 point we must be careful to bear in mind what our silver friends 

 generally, if not always, ignore i. e., the influence of railways 

 and inventions in cheapening products. Kerosene sold at Toledo 

 forty years ago for seventy-five cents a gallon ; recently as low as 

 five cents. If, then, we ignored all other commodities and the 

 influence of discovery, we might reach the absurd conclusion that 

 gold had appreciated fifteen times and silver seven and a half 

 times in forty years. So with the value of wheat and cotton 

 in Liverpool. Improvements have cheapened transportation so 

 vastly that, though the Ohio farmer now gets more for his wheat 

 and corn than he did in the "forties," those products sell in 

 Liverpool for one third the former price. So this low price in 

 Liverpool does not mean that gold, as compared with wheat and 

 corn, has risen. It merely registers the force of other circum- 

 stances. In using this method of comparison, therefore, we must 

 be careful to consider not simply present as compared with for- 

 mer prices, but also other matters affecting market values ; and it 

 is best, whenever possible, to make comparison with commodities 

 where the methods of production and transportation are compara- 

 tively unchanged. 



I. For the purpose of comparison we shall go back a period 

 of fifty years, and by observing the change in price-level of a 

 given amount of gold we shall have pretty clear evidence of its 

 rise or fall. Such a method ought to meet with acceptance by 

 the silver men, because they are, I think, universally fond of as- 

 serting that for hundreds of years the " bimetallic standard" pro- 

 vided a good currency, free from all objections, and that our great 



* Never until the past few months have the " gold " men seemed to put forth their 

 case in public argument. Their feeling seemed to be that the silver agitation was a 

 piece of childish folly which required simply a little soothing talk about international bi- 

 metallism and " increased use of silver," and other Utopian schemes. Accordingly, the silver 

 men have really had the field to themselves, and have filled the air with talk about the 

 " appreciation " of gold, " the crime of '73," etc., almost without contradiction ; so that the 

 public mind has given far more credit to these fairy tales than could otherwise have hap- 

 pened. 



