CURRENCY. 



241 



a depreciation of silver of about 3 per cent. 

 The fluctuations in the bullion value of silver 

 for the past 117 years are exhibited in the 

 following table, showing the average annual 

 ratio of value between gold and silver ex- 

 pressed, as is customary, in quantities of pure 

 silver to one of gold in the London market 

 from 1760 to 1876, inclusive (up to 1829, 

 from "Executive Document 117, First Session, 

 Twenty-first Congress ; " from 1830 to 1832, 

 from the report of the Director of the United 

 States Mint; from 1833 to 1875, from Pixley 

 & Abell's circulars; for 1876, from the weekly 

 gold averages for standard silver in the London 

 Economist) : 



When the London quotation is 59d. per 

 standard ounce, the ratio in that market is the 

 former legal ratio of the United States, 1 : 15.98 ; 

 when bullion is quoted 60.87<2. per ounce, it 

 represents the French legal ratio of 1:15&. 



There is little silver remaining in Europe, 

 aside from the subsidiary coinages, except in 

 the French stock of full-tender coins, the 

 highest estimate of which is 41 3 million dollars, 

 and in the German thaler coinage, which may 

 amount to 100 millon dollars. The consumption 

 of the world, outside of Asia, of silver in arts 

 and manufactures, and in supplying the waste 

 and loss of coins, may be estimated to be at 

 least 50 million dollars' worth, while the 

 world's production is now only 74 millions. 

 This would leave of the annual supply only 

 24 millions to supply the Asiatic demand, which 

 has always largely exceeded that amount, and 

 is now, after a brief interruption, more active 

 than ever. Humboldt estimated, in the begin- 

 ning of the century, that Asia absorbed 25 out 

 of the 43 millions of silver produced annually 

 in America. In the 26 years from 1851 to 

 1876, the shipments of specie from England 

 and France to Egypt and the East were, al- 

 together, $1,036,557,450 in silver and $316,- 

 963,035 in gold, an annual average of nearly 

 VOL. xvii. 16 A 



40 millions of silver and over 12 millions of 

 gold. British India alone received, in excess 

 of exports, 1,000 millions of silver and half that 

 amount of gold in the 40 years ending 1875. 

 The requirements of India and the rest of the 

 Orient for silver currency, and the desire of 

 the Asiatic peoples for both the precious metals 

 for ornaments, are as exigent to-day as they 

 ever were, and are practically insatiable, and 

 only limited by their ability to pay for them. 

 The shipments of silver from England to India 

 and China in 1876 were $45,975,438, which 

 was 17 millions more than the average for 26 

 years. In the same year $9,119,031, in silver, 

 were shipped to the East from San Francisco ; 

 and $5,319,792 went to the Levant from Aus- 

 tria, in the form of Maria-Theresa thalers. 

 Asia has already engorged the mass of silver 

 forced upon the market by the German Gov- 

 ernment. 



"The opportunity to obtain silver, before 

 the disposable European stock is entirely trans- 

 ferred to the East, ought to be seized upon by 

 the United States." It would be absolutely 

 impossible to resume specie payments in the 

 United States in gold. The entire visible sup- 

 ply of coin and bars in the Western world at 

 present does not exceed 1,600 million dollars. 

 The current supply is no greater than the an- 

 nual consumption ; England alone requires an 

 annual supply of 25million dollars, or one-fourth 

 of the world's production. The United States 

 Government and banks could not establish a 

 gold basis of payments with less than 300 mill- 

 ion dollars, which would be about 20 per cent, 

 of the entire stock of the Occident. " To pro- 

 pose to this country a contest for a gold 

 standard with the European nations, is to pro- 

 pose to it a disastrous race, in reducing the 

 prices of labor and commodities, in aggravating 

 the burdens of debt, and in the diminution and 

 concentration of wealth, in which all the con- 

 testants will suffer immeasurably, and the vic- 

 tors even more than the vanquished." Silver 

 and gold are both products of the United States, 

 and " both are needed, and in the fullest 

 measure, to render the resumption of specie 

 payments possible." The double standard 

 gives a stability to values which is far more 

 important than the fanciful disadvantages of 

 the alternation of the metals in the actual cir- 

 culation. Gold is, of the two metals, the least 

 appropriate for a measure of values, owing to 

 the greater irregularity of its supply, as may 

 be seen in the financial history of England, 

 which has abounded in commercial crises and 

 revulsions. " It is the single-standard coun- 

 tries which suffer the evils of falling prices 

 caused by an enhanced value of their money, 

 while it is the double-standard countries which 

 enjoy the benefits of the use of a money which 

 is the better because the steadier in value. It 

 is the single-standard countries whose money 

 metal is temporarily the dearer which pay 

 these premiums, and it is the double-standard 

 countries which receive them. Thus, after 



