256 REPORT— 1887. 



(2) The desirability of prescribing separately for different interests is 

 even more strongly brought before us when we consider the second of the 

 methods above defined. It purports to be a sUdivg scale for general use, 

 adapted to all trades. But what fits all indiscriminately cannot fit many 

 exactly. We may say of such a project what Steuart says of a certain 

 ' ideal standard,' that it is ' acting like the tyrant who adjusted every man's 

 length to that of his own bed, cutting from the length of those who were 

 taller than himself, and racking and stretching the limbs of such as he 

 found to be of a lower stature.' It would not be unreasonable, however, 

 to construct beds of different sizes, adapted to the average height of 

 markedly different classes of persons, say little boys and men. Simi- 

 larly, when average prices have largely varied, a scale sliding with the 

 average variation, however imperfectly fitted to particular trades, may 

 be suitable to industry as a whole. The illustration shows the spirit in 

 which our calculation should be performed. What should we think of an 

 upholsterer who, having to construct different types of bed, should invoke 

 the aid of the British Association Anthropometric Committee nicely to de- 

 termine Vhoiiime moyen. for different ages ? The labours of that committee 

 would not be more misspent than ours, if we attempted in framing a uni- 

 versal sliding scale to determine the ideally best weight for each item 

 entering into the combination. Almost any combination of the more 

 important articles of trade is likely to be equally imperfect and equally 

 serviceable. See p. 274. 



The advantages aimed at by this method maybe presented under two 

 aspects. That steady secular decline of prices which, according to many 

 eminent writers, is a cause of the depression of trade, might be corrected. 

 The advantages offered by bimetallists would be attained. There might 

 be also another benefit which not even bimetallists venture to pro- 

 mise. The sudden violent oscillations in general prices, occasioned by the 

 derangement of credit, would be arrested. For, as the supply of money to 

 meet debts brcame deficient, the demand for money to meet debts would 

 proportionately dwindle ; the amount of debts in * standard ' currency in- 

 versely varying with the value of metallic money." The hunger for gold 

 would be less felt just as the means of satisfying it were less abundant. 

 Heretofore a contraction of currency has acted like an atmospheric depres- 

 sion in the physical world. The drain and rush of the medium has pro- 

 duced a storm. But in the new commercial Cosmos, equilibrium between 

 debts and currency being continually preserved, the stormy winds of 

 Panic will have ceased to blow. Hitherto the relation between liabilities 

 and currency has been that of a continent to the ever-changing level of 

 the sea. Each ampler tidal wave has rendered harbours unserviceable, 

 and dislocated trade, and strewn the shore with wrecks. But the latest 

 invention of science is a sort of floating docl', which shall rise with the 

 flood and sink with the ebb, so that the argosies of commerce may be 

 safely landed, whatever the level of the transporting medium. 



purchasing power of selected amounts of consumers' incomes, estimated in the 

 corrected standard. I mean that having tirst determined, bj' our principal standard, 

 the corrected value of II. for the given year, we should then find the alteration in the 

 purchasing power of the new standard IZ. for different incomes: e.y., for incomes of 

 BOl., lOOZ., 200?., 500?., 1,000Z., and 10,000?.' 



' This action is well exemplified in the plan proposed by William Cross, that the 

 standard should vary per saltum ; a correction being made as often, say, as money 

 was appreciated (or depreciated) by 3 per cent. 



