ON VARIATIONS IN THE VALUE OF THE MONETARY STANDARD. 219 



bination of Jevons' materials, to be supplemented by the observed fact 

 tbat the Arithmetic and Geometric Means of prices do not much differ. 



The last table resumes the results of the first five in its first and 

 second rows. The first row states the number of items common to the 

 Committee with each of the compared schemes — a necessary datum for 

 the estimate of the discrepancy likely to exist between the results. 

 Cceteris paribus, this discrepancy is inversely proportioned to the square 

 root of the number of common items. The second row gives the mean 

 difference between the respective weights as above defined. The third 

 and fourth rows compare the Committee's index-number with each of 

 the others as to the extent of the materials not common to both. The 

 comparison may be thus illustrated. Let CO represent by its length the 



^/t- 



C O C 



quantity of weight common to the Committee and the other index-number. 

 Let CC represent the total weight of all the articles in the Committee's 

 system, and 00' that of the other system. The third row gives the 

 ratio of CO to CC, and the fourth column the ratio of CO to 00'. 



The last two rows give an estimate of the discrepancy likely or 

 unlikely to occur between the results of the compared computations. 

 This estimate involves (in addition to the data contained in the preceding 

 rows) a constant or coefficient deduced from the course of English prices 

 in past years : the inequality or dispersion of price- variations, which 

 keeps pretty constant from year to year. The estimates are therefore only 

 applicable to England. They are to be taken cum grano, with the reser- 

 vations stated in various parts of the Memorandum. 



Report of the Committee, consisting of Mr. S. Bourne, Professor F. Y. 

 Edgeworth {Secretary), Professor H. S. Foxwell, Mr. Egbert 

 GiFFEN, Professor Alfred Marshall, Mr. J. B. Martin, Professor 

 J. S. Nicholson, and Mr. E. H. Inglis Palgrave, appointed for 

 the purpose ofinquirinc/ and reporting as to the Statistical Data 

 available for determining the amount of the Precious Metals in 

 use as Money in the principal Countries, the chief forms in 

 %vhich the Money is employed, and the amount annually used 

 in the Arts. (Dratun up by the Secretary.) 



(The bracketed numerals refer to the Remarks appended to the Report.) 



Upon the first head of the proposed inquiry the Committee are unable to 

 report favourably. They have not found data available for determining 

 with any degree of precision the amount of gold in use as money in the 

 United Kingdom. Several ways of making an estimate have been indi- 

 cated by eminent statisticians. But it appears to the Committee that all 

 these computations, as applied to the tjnited Kingdom, fail ; owing, 

 not to the incorrectness of the reasoning, but the unsoundness of the 

 data. They remark in detail upon the three methods which appear to 

 deserve most consideration. 



I. Newmarch's method, as developed by later statisticians (1), consists 

 of the two following steps : — 1. Estimate the amount of precious metal in 



