APPENDIX. 611 



independent study is of far more value to a man than a correct judgment 

 accepted from somebody else; for one man's error can do no great harm to 

 society, while the acquirement of the art of study will be of infinite value to 

 the man, and probably enable him, in due time, to correct early erroneous 

 judgments, perhaps founded on insufficient, or inaccurate data. The proper 

 order of topics for the study of currency questions seems to me to be, first, the 

 statistics bearing on the volume of currency; secondly, those relating to the 

 ratio, past and present, between gold and silver, and finally, those relating to 

 prices. 



2. Some Cautions about the Use of Statistics.— It is, perhaps, desira- 

 ble to say something about the use of statistics. In the first place they are not 

 always entirely accurate, because in the nature of things they can not Be made 

 so. The receipts and expenditures of governments can be stated to the smallest 

 fraction, but valuations of exports and imports, for example, are not nearly so 

 accurate. Valuations made for the purpose of assessment of ad valorem duties 

 are substantially correct, but those assigned to importations to be sold upon 

 commission, and upon which the duty to be collected is "specific," are some- 

 times hardly rough approximations. A cargo of lemons, for example, may be 

 certified by a consul in Sicily at $1.50 per box, and yet not actually sell for 

 much more than freight money. We know exactly the amount of gold and 

 silver coined in all countries, for a long period back, and the amownt of govern- 

 ment, and, usually, of bank paper money in circulation, but we do not exactly 

 know the movement of the precious metals, coined or uncoined, from one country 

 to another, the amount used in the arts, or the stocks of them in the world at 

 diflerent periods, or at present. For everything not the subject of actual book- 

 keeping and balance sheets we are dependent upon estimates. These estimates, 

 however, are not made at random. They are the work of capable men whose 

 profession is the compilation and arrangement of statistics, wlio are fully aware 

 of, and carefully consider the danger of, error, and give, after careful considera- 

 tion, their judgment of the facts. In such matters as the amounts of the 

 precious metals in the world, four hundred years since, when the study of 

 statistics was hardly thought of, we can place little reliance upon the tables, 

 and we do not know very well, even to-day, the quantity of gold and silver 

 annually used in the arts. The production of these metals, however, has for 

 many centuries been a matter of government record in all civilized countries, 

 in most of which a royalty upon the product of mines is exacted by the 

 government, and a rigid accounting required. In our own country no such 

 accounting is kept, but the authorities of the mint, with the aid of the express 

 companies and banks, make a very close approximation to our production. 

 From such semi-civilized countries as China statisticians get the best informa- 

 tion possible and make up their judgments upon it. Gold and silver passing 

 from one country to another by sea, as freight or express, must be entered upon 

 the manifests of the vessels, and is recorded in custom houses. That which 

 passes to and fro upon the persons of travelers must be estin.ated or disregarded. 

 In the main the monetary statistics of the past fifty years, so far as they are 

 those of civilized countries, may be regarded as reliable, for what they purport 

 to be. 



